Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

The Labor Party must think that offence is the best form of defence because they must have written this MPI for us. We are happy to talk about energy policy and we are happy to talk about the legacy that we inherited from the Labor Party and our plans for getting it right, because Australians deserve better energy outcomes than the Labor Party ever delivered for them.

During the time that we had the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, we had electricity prices increase by more than 100 per cent. There were some one dozen different policies. My colleagues may remember the 'cash for clunkers' and the citizens' assembly—whether it is a CPRS, an ETS or, indeed, the carbon tax. A $15 billion hit on households was the legacy of the Labor Party when they were in office.

Of course, we have seen this headlong pursuit of a 50 per cent renewable energy target by Labor governments, including the great big experiment gone wrong in South Australia under Jay Weatherill's leadership. What we saw from the Labor Party there was denial of a problem until for the first time 1.7 million people across the whole state of South Australia last their power. This was devastating. It was devastating for households. It was devastating for business confidence. It was devastating for those high-energy users such as Nyrstar at their Port Pirie smelter, BHP at Olympic Dam and Arrium at Whyalla. Obviously they are trying to sell that asset. This could not have come at a worse time. That is what happens when you put ideology ahead of practical policy focused on energy security and energy affordability.

Let us turn to Victoria where the Andrews government and a minister described the continued operation of Hazelwood as 'disgraceful'. It is no wonder, then, that the Andrews Labor government tripled the coal royalties on those operating in the Latrobe Valley, putting extra pressure on the balance sheet of the owners of Hazelwood—namely, Engie and Mitsui. They pursued the 40 per cent renewable energy target which again made it more difficult for the thermal generators in that state.

Then there were those mad moratoriums on conventional and unconventional gas extraction in Victoria. To think that Geoscience Australia tells us that Victoria has some 40 years worth of reserves and in the Northern Territory there may be up to 180 years worth of reserves. In other parts of the country governments have been putting in place these moratoriums on conventional and unconventional gas extraction.

That is the legacy that we inherited and those are the wrongs we are now trying to get right. We are pursuing important reforms through the COAG Energy Council, particularly to get lower prices for the transportation of gas. These are some historic reforms, the most significant in some two decades, bringing the pipeline operators together with their customers and avoiding the unequal bargaining situation.

The meeting that the Prime Minister called with the LNG suppliers focused on getting more gas out of the ground and more gas into the domestic market by getting a commitment from those big players that they will meet future shortfalls in the domestic market. This was critical because we have heard from the Australian Energy Market Operator that there would be shortfalls ranging from 10 to 54 petajoules from the summer of 2018-19 hitting the states of Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and, later on, Queensland.

They are practical results. We are now reining in the network costs that make up to 50 per cent of a household bill by getting a significant agreement through the COAG Energy Council to prevent the limited merits review process operating in the scope and on the scale that it has to date.

There has also been the record investment in storage through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, ARENA, Kidston in Queensland, Cultana in South Australia and Snowy Hydro 2.0, which has the potential to boost the output of the snowy scheme by some 50 per cent—2,000 megawatts—creating more than 500 jobs and empowering 500,000 homes using renewable energy power and pumped storage. This is absolutely critical for the future stability of our grid.

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