Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Prime Minister’s so-called energy statement, and I should begin by saying that this is one of those speeches that was interrupted by a two-week recess. In the absence of an opportunity to check on what I was saying when I was adjourned last time, I will do my best to pick up where I left off. What is really intriguing about this energy statement is its very title. This was presented as the Prime Minister’s response to spiralling petrol prices in this country and the burden that they were placing on families, individual motorists, business and the economy as a whole. But we saw nothing in this about petrol prices, and we saw nothing in this about energy. A real energy statement is one which first of all identifies and quantifies Australia’s present and future needs, identifies and quantifies our own domestic resources and then strives to maximise our self-sufficiency.

Energy independence is becoming critical for all nation states around the globe, and we need to work a lot harder at self-sufficiency and energy independence. A real energy statement also strives to deliver affordable energy to Australia’s consumers, whether they be householders or industry; it strives to maximise efficiency; and it strives to ensure that we consume our reserves of energy, whether they be domestically produced or imported, in the most environmentally friendly way. That is not an exhaustive list, but it gives you some idea of what I see as an energy policy and what you would expect from a Prime Minister delivering an energy statement. But we saw none of that.

We did see one thing and almost one thing alone, and that was the announcement that the government would subsidise the conversion of petrol motor vehicles to LPG, an initiative I have calculated will be of assistance to just three per cent of motorists in this country. It is not going to do anything for those who do not have the opportunity to convert, and it is not even going to deliver much benefit to those who do convert. Given your background you probably know even better than me, Mr Deputy Speaker Somlyay, that, given the simple laws of supply and demand, if you push everyone onto LPG conversions and demand outstrips supply, the price of conversions goes up. And if you push more people onto LPG—

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