Labour DLP believes that public utilities such as power, water and gas, must remain in public hands, so her claim that the party supports “trans-national fossil energy corporations” is patently false.

Labour DLP is opposed to private corporations having control of our critical infrastructure assets which exposes us to espionage and endangers our sovereignty and security, not to mention allowing price gouging by companies whose main objective is profit, not the provision of essential services at reasonable cost.

Labour DLP believes the lowest-cost form of energy, coal, is the best way for us to revitalise our manufacturing industry through affordable energy.

This will create much needed jobs, especially in regional areas which are suffering from a mass migration of people, especially youth, gravitating to Melbourne in search of work.

Manufacturing has been decimated due to low quality, cheap imported goods undercutting local goods and unsustainable power prices forcing local business and industry to the wall.

Claims that renewables are cheaper than coal do not hold water. If that is the case, why do we need to subsidise them (via higher power bills) to the tune of $3.6 billion annually? Remove the subsidies and let’s see how economical they are. 

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Ms Lawrence claims that decarbonising our economy will increase manufacturing.

With the billions of dollars being funnelled into renewables, the Clean Energy Council says that the total number of jobs in Australia from 39 renewable energy projects under construction or planned is 4,400 while the coal industry employs 51,500 people directly and 120,000 indirectly.

Coal led to $51 billion of export revenue, $6 billion in wages and $5 billion in royalties in 2017. 

Finally, I have still to read any evidence from Helen that burning fossil fuels causes “dangerous” climate change.

Everything she writes is predicated on the view that a “climate emergency” is actually happening, which will drown half the Pacific.

Parliamentarians must respond to facts, not scaremongering or speculative climate modelling.

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