Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Millions of people spent days without electricity because the government had failed to ensure that there were enough generators of the right kind to provide it. The other leg of Labor's plan for electricity prices, in the words of its Climate Change Action Plan, is to kickstart the closure of coal-fired power plants. Labor intend to force the closure of our lowest cost, most reliable form of energy.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Mr Thistlethwaite interjecting—

You guys can't quite make up your minds what you want to do. The effect on the electricity prices paid by our struggling businesses and consumers is well attested. In Victoria when the Hazelwood plant was forced to close, electricity prices immediately went up to $135. In South Australia, it has caused a 50 per cent jump in prices for the large industrial users on which the state relies.

We shouldn't be surprised by these policies. Labor's record on electricity prices is clear. During the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, prices doubled—an increase of 101 per cent. When the coalition was returned in 2013, our immediate action brought a fall in prices of up to 12½ per cent. That is the difference—decisive and pragmatic action to reduce prices from the coalition; inflated, ideological, virtue signalling from Labor which costs jobs, wrecks businesses and raises prices for all Australians.

The bill before the House today demonstrates that difference once again and addresses the third part of the pressures that are causing high electricity prices for Australian consumers and businesses. Energy networks operate the physical infrastructure that delivers our electricity—the poles and wires. Within each state, these networks operate in a monopoly position, which unless properly controlled can substantially increase the price of electricity. Network costs already make up between 40 and 50 per cent of the price paid by consumers. If we can control that cost, we can make a big difference for all Australians and Australian businesses.

The necessary control exists in the form of the Australian Energy Regulator. But since 2008 the effectiveness of that regulator has been fatally undermined by the limited merits review process. Although set up with good intentions, this process has ended up acting solely and consistently as a means for networks to game the system and generate inflated, monopolised profits at the expense of ordinary Australians. Since 2008, the review process has been employed by networks to challenge 32 out of the 51 Australian energy regulated decisions that have been made. In a balanced and working review mechanism, one could expect that some decisions would favour the consumer and some decisions would favour the networks, but that is not what has happened with limited merits review. In nine years, not a single one of the 32 challenges has resulted in reduced costs for consumers. In fact, as a result of the limited merits review, Australian businesses and householders have paid $6.5 billion more for their electricity. We need to end this rort. The COAG Energy Council has acknowledged that this system is failing and is causing higher prices for consumers, yet COAG has been unable to agree to scrap it.

The price of electricity in Australia is risking people's future in our community today. There are small business owners who face the very real prospect of losing their long-cherished dreams and of having all that they have worked for and sacrificed destroyed by the outrageous cost of energy. The livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and the hundreds of thousands of Australians they employ are at risk unless we act soon. Worse, this energy crisis affects not only the prosperity of our people but, in some cases, their very lives. When there are vulnerable Australians who cannot turn on the heat on a subzero winter's night or who cannot cool their homes in a 40-degree heatwave, then lives are at stake and we have to act.

I know that the people of Fisher are deeply concerned about this issue. It's something that they tell me about every day. I'm pleased to see that this government is taking decisive action. I commend the bill to the House.

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