Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Hansard source

The Queensland minister actually did not want it either, but that is another story. What happened in the end was that we established these new bodies, the AER and the Australian Energy Market Commission, the AEMC, and their head offices were established in Melbourne and Sydney. The winners went away smiling, the losers went away unhappy, but in the end it made absolutely no difference at all. So those two bodies were established and positioned. They replaced an absolute labyrinth of regulation in the sector and were desperately needed in the energy industry.

I mentioned that there are private companies, private enterprise, looking to invest in the Australian energy market, at a time when state governments everywhere are short of cash. No-one is as short of cash as Queensland, of course, who have managed to rack up a $74 billion debt. What a figure; how did they do it? It is just mind blowing. I guess in the next few days the voters will ask them how they did that as well. But at a time when the state treasuries are not—

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