Last night, Chris Bowen also gave a speech to the Investor Group on Climate Change where he said:

Twenty years ago the Australian Parliament was debating whether to take action on climate change and some were making outrageous claims that action on climate would cost jobs and energy bills!   

A situation unthinkable today!  

If only!  

Twenty years ago Barnaby Joyce was warning that it was technically impossible for our energy grid to get 5% renewable energy.  

Well here we are, despite all the progress we have made together some debates are circular and some people with an unquenchable prejudice against renewable energy refuse to accept the evidence, the science, the economics and the common sense of our transition.  

But that’s OK, their relentless drive against modernity sees them driven further and further to fringes of the debate and the depths of Opposition.  

In all seriousness, despite the desperate rear guard action of the desperate dinosaurs of the Opposition, we have made enormous progress.  

Twenty years ago, renewable energy was a tiny proportion of our grid, the Federal Government was talking about mythical “clean coal”, disavowing the Kyoto Protocol and disputing the science.  

This term it’s likely we will see renewable energy will surpass coal as our biggest source of electricity and then surpass 50% of our energy, Australia is a key leader of international climate discussions and we are working closely with Pacific partners.  

But there is so, so much more to do.