Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Only somebody as confused as the Leader of the Opposition would combine a question about same-sex marriage and energy prices into the one question. I can assure honourable speakers that the two issues are entirely unrelated. As far as energy prices are concerned, the fact of the matter is that a recklessness on the part of Labor governments in the past has led us into the position we are in today. There is no point kidding ourselves about this.

The largest single factor on energy prices—electricity prices—right now is the price of gas. Why is gas so expensive? It is so expensive because a federal Labor government and a Queensland state Labor government allowed a big export facility to be built on Curtis Island without any regard for the consequences for the Australian domestic gas market. We do not criticise exporting gas. We are about to become the biggest exporter of LNG in the world and that is a great achievement. But a government which is mindful of its responsibilities to the people it represents would at least have done some planning and given some thought to the domestic market. The Labor Party did not, and that is why we have had to take the strong measures we have taken. As I said yesterday, the spot price for gas on the east coast has already come down several dollars a gigajoule, but it is a massive problem. We are short of gas on the east coast, a shortage created by the failure of Labor policy.

Ms Owens interjecting—

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