Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yet yesterday—for the member's education, over there—several companies stated that they will not reduce the wages they pay to their staff. And why would they? If they are running a profitable business on the weekend, if they have good staff, there is no requirement to reduce those salaries, and that is what they have said. The real concern about poverty in this country has to be the cost of electricity. Let us look at a couple of examples.

In New South Wales the electricity price—

An honourable member interjecting—

We are happy to talk about electricity prices every single day until the next election. Every single day we will be talking about them, and the public will wake up and realise that your absurd 50 per cent renewable energy target will push up the price of electricity and increase poverty in this nation. Let us have a look at where we are already.

New South Wales average electricity prices for 2015-16 were 20.93c. Unfortunately, in South Australia—where they think it is really clever to have a 50 per cent renewable energy target—electricity prices are 50 per cent higher for residences, around 30c. What effect does that have? You only have to look at the comparison between electricity disconnections in New South Wales and South Australia.

Look at hardship programs. For every head of population there is double the number of people in South Australia on hardship programs because they cannot afford their electricity. When it comes to electricity disconnections—I cannot think of anything worse than somebody having their electricity disconnected—in South Australia, because of their high electricity prices, it is 60 per cent higher per head of population.

So I call on the members of the Labor Party, if they are concerned about poverty, to drop their 50 per cent renewable energy target. (Time expired)

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