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

Is it good policy for the Labor Party in South Australia, with its 50 per cent renewable energy target, to now be taking more brown coal-fired power than ever over the Heywood interconnector from the Latrobe Valley in Victoria into South Australia? That is what bad policy looks like. That is now the policy that the Labor Party, federally, wants to take nationally after seeing it happen in the state of South Australia.

We know that the member for Port Adelaide has stayed silent when his Labor brethren in Victoria and the Northern Territory have refused to develop decades worth of gas reserves and resources—not just unconventional gas but also onshore conventional gas, which we know, if it was developed, would reduce the power prices substantially for Australian households and businesses.

The Labor Party, when in government, were warned about the big exports from the east coast to markets in Japan and elsewhere. They were warned about the impact on both prices and supply. Those warnings came not only from the Australian energy market operator but also from their own energy white paper. But, in the face of those warnings, they did nothing. And now, after denying the reality and the evidence, the member for Port Adelaide has admitted that it was Labor policies, Labor ignorance and Labor's foolery that led to higher prices today.

Their record on coal is just as bad as their record on gas. In the state of South Australia, they oversaw policies which saw the closure of the coal-fired Northern Power Station. In the state of Victoria, they know that their Labor brethren, who they have refused to criticise, hiked the royalties for coal players in the Latrobe Valley by 300 per cent. Those policies contributed to the hastened closure of Hazelwood Power Station. Together Northern and Hazelwood's closures have led to the problems and the challenges we face.

Now, after their time in office that gave us the cash for clunkers, the citizens assembly, the pink batts and the dreaded carbon tax, what do we get from the Labor Party? We now get a commitment to a 50 per cent renewable energy target and a ridiculously reckless 45 per cent emissions reduction target, a target which the Business Council of Australia has called 'reckless and unnecessary'. That's what the Business Council of Australia has called the Labor Party's own 45 per cent emissions reduction target: risky and unnecessary. The Labor Party do not know the true impact that would have on both the cost and the stability of the system. With the Australian Energy Market Operator making it very clear that there will be supply shortfalls going forward, and particularly with the closure of Liddell in 2022, we now need to take corrective action. That is why the Prime Minister has reached out to the owner of Liddell, AGL. They're coming to discussions in Canberra on Monday.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

We hear an interjection from the member for Hunter, 'No Coal Joel'. He should know better, because hundreds of workers in his own electorate rely on coal-fired power. But he's out there waving the white flag even though the federal government wants to help them stay in a job. Not only that, the federal government is concerned about the stability of the system, and sought, from AEMO, this report into the dispatchability of the system.

In Queensland, we saw a state Labor government under Premier Palaszczuk, with its own coal-fired generators that control 65 per cent of the market, put in place uncompetitive bidding practices that saw the state of Queensland have the highest wholesale electricity prices in the National Electricity Market for the first five months of this year. The members for Queensland on this side of the House know that policy, overseen by a Labor state government, meant higher prices for the people of Queensland. It was only because the federal government called out those uncompetitive bidding practices that the Labor government saw fit to give a direction to the Stanwell operator in Queensland. We have seen the forward curve come down substantially since then. So, it's their record on coal, their record in office, their record on gas, their record on renewable energy targets, their record in Victoria, their record in Queensland and their record in South Australia that have given us the challenges we face today.

Under Prime Minister Turnbull, we have taken drastic action, which includes abolishing the limited merits review process, which, if the Labor Party had done it, would have saved consumers $6½ billion. Now the member for Port Adelaide, who said, 'Thank goodness the coalition is now abolishing the limited merits review,' is delaying the passage of that legislation in the Senate by referring it to committee so that his mates in the union movement can have their say. Well, if he were so concerned about driving power prices down, he would pass that legislation in the Senate. What did the Labor Party do during their six years in office to get a better deal from the retailers for consumers? What did they do to get plain-English contracts? What did they do to get the discounts offered in dollar terms, not in percentages? What did they do to get people who are on standing offers to be offered something that was a better deal? What did they do to get the retailers to notify consumers when they came off a market offer onto a more standing offer? The Labor Party did nothing: nothing on networks, nothing on retailers, nothing on gas and nothing on coal—only higher renewable energy targets, higher emissions reduction targets and higher electricity prices. The Labor Party's condemned by their own actions and their own record. The electricity prices on their watch went up more than 100 per cent. Only the coalition will drive down energy prices and create a more stable energy system.

See this speech in context