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

Today, from the Labor member's contribution to this debate, I think I have heard everything. Their proposition that they put forward is that if we put a tax on the lowest cost electricity generators, it will somehow make the problem better. With such illogical, irrational, zealotry thinking, I fear for the future of my country.

We have had in this nation a doubling of electricity prices over the last 10 years. But what the members of the Labor Party fail to mention is that almost all of that increase came under their watch. It was the coalition that removed the carbon tax and was able to stabilise electricity prices in this nation. But that has caught up with us. The renewable energy target, having been set by the Labor Party at 20 per cent, has caught up with us, because we have very large increases in electricity prices coming through. Delta Energy has said that the electricity prices coming through this year are $1 billion for South Australia, $2.8 billion for Victoria, $4 billion for New South Wales, and $2 billion for Queensland. Why is that happening? They state these increases are a direct consequence of the closure of the baseload coal-fired power stations. They go on to say that by governments mandating and subsiding renewables, by law, and by the media and the education sector creating a renewables obsession as a populist cause, no rational business would ever invest in baseload coal generation. The mess created by the renewable energy target, and dictated by Labor and the Greens, is the reason we are facing this catastrophic increase in electricity prices in Australia.

We had the member for Kingsford Smith in here talking about coal-fired power plants being something of the past. I have got some news for the member for Kingsford Smith: he may care to look at a paper recently released by no less than Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, two of the most anti-coal organisations on the planet. They list that, in all active developments around the world, there is 842,000 megawatts of coal-fired electricity generating capacity under active construction. That is the equivalent of over 500 Hazelwood power stations. So, where we have closed down one Hazelwood power station, around the world there are more than 500 under active development—and the member for Kingsford Smith comes in here and says, 'Coal-fired power is a thing of the past.' Such stupidity puts the future prosperity of our nation at risk.

If you want to see the future of your 50 per cent renewable energy target, just look at the unmitigated disaster that is occurring in South Australia. It is the highest renewable energy target for electricity in the nation and—surprise, surprise!—South Australia also has the highest unemployment. Last month's unemployment figures have come out. Everywhere around the nation was either stable or saw unemployment fall except for the unmitigated disaster in South Australia. And what are the South Australians having to do? They are spending another $500 million of money they do not have to install diesel generators and a few batteries that will be completely useless. When they buy those batteries, I hope they get a free set of steak knives! Energy is the most important thing that we have in our nation for our competitive advantage.

There was a paper published back in 2004, and I will quote from it. It says:

Australia enjoys some of the lowest stationary energy prices in the developed world. These prices have been an important factor in Australia's national prosperity, underpinning energy-intensive industry and providing cheap reliable energy to businesses and households.

We have surrendered that. We have surrendered our national competitive advantage. This has flowed through to higher cost to consumers, higher cost to businesses and fewer jobs, and the Renewable Energy Target is to blame. I call on members on the Labor Party side to think about the nation. Put the nation first before your ideological obsession. (Time expired)

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