Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes down to it, the type of leadership that our opponents would like to follow is the leadership of South Australia, and particularly Jay Weatherill. You, our opponents, want us to follow the leadership of Jay Weatherill, where you have the lights turned down because you cannot keep them on, because you do not place any value on energy security, investment in the sector and making sure that we have energy for the 21st century.

When you look at what actually happened in South Australia, where they have a 20 per cent renewable energy target, when they had the recent blackout, we had mobile phones going out, we had lights turned off, and we had people who had to sleep in lifts. The ALP vision for energy security in this country is reminiscent of North Korea, not of the rest of the Australian mainland. This is the problem with the ideological approach of the Australian Labor Party today. They are not actually interested in delivering for people or putting people first. They are interested in pursuing an ideological goal that has no sense of understanding or awareness about what ordinary Australians need.

Look at what people need. They need stability and certainty in the energy network. They need security of supply. As my good friend the member for Hughes rightly pointed out, what they also need is to be able to afford energy. People might remember the recent AEMO report that talked about the problems in South Australia's energy supply in the recent blackout.

Members opposite might like to take the time to go and read a report they produced only a few months ago. AEMO produced a report that highlights that one in four families find it difficult to keep the lights on, to be able to pay electricity bills. The people who are worst affected are lower-income households, the people they claim to represent. What a farce. When it comes down to it there are so many people across this country who are struggling to make ends meet—even people in my electorate of Goldstein, where you get pensioners who have to deal with the consequences of energy poverty. Their solution is to make it worse—increase prices and make it harder for them to afford to pay their bills. But it is not just that—it is not just an issue directly around price. It has a flow-on effect to jobs—those young aspirational people who want economic opportunities in their lives.

I would like to draw your attention to a report that recently came out from Manufacturing Australia. Their press release on 11 October states specifically:

Last month's power outage in South Australia was extremely damaging for manufacturing in that state.

…   …   …

The lack of stability and high power prices in South Australia are threatening both existing and future manufacturing investment in a state already reeling from automotive closures.

That is the future they want to project—one where people cannot afford power and industry has a shutdown to achieve their ideological objectives.

It is not just that. Then there is the Australian Energy Council. The list of groups complaining about Labor Party policy continues to go on. In their press release today, the Australian Energy Council said:

Transforming the Queensland electricity system will require a multi-billion dollar investment over decades. It's not magic. This will have to be paid for either by consumers or Queensland taxpayers.

That is the cost of going down this ideological approach. It pushes the cost onto those who can least afford it and onto the taxpayer overall.

The Australian Energy Council press release states further:

Policies that directly intervene in commercial decisions risk undermining investor confidence and will not attract the necessary investment in new generation.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a press release yesterday said:

… use of these intermittent energy technologies impacts on the National Electricity Market, so we need a national approach.

But that is not the one they are prosecuting—the ideological one where they look at how to increase the amount of renewable energy in the market, without any sense of understanding about the cost or the impact on ordinary Aussies.

ACCI further said:

State-based renewable energy targets can confuse and distort the national market, driving up costs for consumers without necessarily improving environmental outcomes.

Some states have announced aspirational targets without making clear how these targets will be met …

And that is what they are talking about. Big boasts and no delivery. (Time expired)

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