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

Members opposite laugh, but I would like to see if you are still laughing when people start getting their electricity bills next year and start seeing that 10 per cent increase. I want to see if you guys are still laughing next year when, because of the closure of Hazelwood, there will be a 75 per cent chance of blackouts in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. I would like the Hansard to record that members of the Labor Party here in this chamber are laughing at that prospect. When people are trapped in lifts, let us see who is laughing then. When the traffic lights go out at a major dangerous intersection, let us see who is laughing then. When people have to cancel their operations because the electricity has gone out in the hospital, let us see who is laughing then. When millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of food is wasted because people cannot keep their refrigerators on because there is no electricity, let us see who is laughing then. And let us see who is laughing when jobs are lost in this country because of the high cost of electricity.

Competitive electricity costs are one of the most important things that we should safeguard. Anyone who has had to work in private business knows that if you get a competitive advantage in any area you guard it with your life, because it is your competitive advantage that enables you to maintain and protect your lifestyle. The competitive advantage that our nation used to have was our low-cost electricity, but we have surrendered that. In an act of vandalism and sabotage, we have surrendered our competitive advantage in electricity. You only have to look at some of the comparisons. Someone living in Australia pays double or even triple the prices paid in the US or Canada. In fact, in South Australia, as compared to Vancouver, they are, incredibly, paying four times the price. How can anyone run a business paying four times the price for such an important business input as electricity? This is what is preventing us from creating wealth in this country.

The real risk, as I have mentioned before, is the risk of the power going out next year. We only have to look at the mess that we have seen in South Australia. Let us have a quick look at the numbers. When the power went out earlier this year in South Australia, they needed around 3,300 megawatts of electricity generation. From gas, they were able to get just over 2,000. They have a total gas installation of 2,600 megawatts, but that is spread over about 20 different power stations. You are always going to expect that, of your 20 different power stations, some will be out for repair, some will be out for maintenance and some will be down. So they had just over 2,000 megawatts from gas and they also have a diesel capacity of around another 100 megawatts. That took them to about 2,200 megawatts.

They also have an installed wind capacity of around 1,600 megawatts, but the problem is that, when the wind does not blow, the power does not flow So, whatever investment you spend on wind turbines and solar, you have to back those up almost 100 per cent with some other type of on-demand electricity generation, which can be hydro, gas or coal in this country. South Australia were also relying on the capacity of 800 megawatts through their interconnector—800 megawatts through to those brown coal stations in Victoria. So they needed another 200 megawatts of electricity to cover the gap.

But the real question is: what happens if they cannot get any power through the interconnector from Victoria? This is what happens: they will have an 800 megawatt shortfall. This is where it comes back to the closure of Hazelwood. The closure of Hazelwood will make Victoria a net importer of electricity. So, by definition, there will be times when the amount of power that Victoria has available to export will be zero. Where will South Australia get their electricity supplies if they cannot get a single megawatt of power through the interconnector from Victoria?

We have seen the effect on the South Australian economy of this policy. We have seen businesses leaving and companies abandoning the state. But the real damage is the damage that we do not see. The damage that we do not see is the decision that is made in company boardrooms around this nation and overseas when a proposal comes up: 'Should we invest our capital in South Australia to create jobs and wealth in South Australia?' When they look at the disaster that the South Australian government has imposed upon that state and they look at how the South Australian government is in complete and utter denial over the problem, they will probably laugh and say, 'We are not putting our shareholders' money in that.' That is what is not seen, but that is what is going to happen in South Australia, which already has one of the highest unemployment rates in this nation, and it will get even worse. We are facing a crisis in this nation, and yet we have the Labor Party wanting to copy the exact same policy of a 50 per cent renewable energy target for this nation. I call on you to abandon that policy. (Time expired)

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