Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Two-thirds of our nation is at risk of blackout in coming summers because while these stations have closed under this government's watch, nothing has been built to replace that generation, and we are short.

It is not just skyrocketing power prices and the risk of blackouts that have emerged under this government; every other indicator of energy policy has been a stunning failure on this government's watch. Pollution is up and gas prices are up—and this Prime Minister won't pull the trigger, as my colleague the member for Blaxland has been saying time and time again over the course of this week. In the renewable energy industry, a massive jobs driver around the world, one in three jobs, according to the ABS, has been lost since this government came to power, while jobs in that industry around the world have skyrocketed by 45 per cent.

As Australians open up their power bills with skyrocketing prices, and as they contemplate the risk of blackouts across two-thirds of the nation in coming summers, they understand who is to blame for this mess: this Prime Minister; his predecessor, the member for Warringah; and the minister for energy. We know why. It is because, as in so many other areas of policy, this government had a plan to dismantle and destroy policy but put nothing in its place. For more than four years this country has been without an energy policy.

If only we had a plan. If only there was a blueprint somewhere to get us out of the deep energy crisis this government has plunged the nation into. Of course, we do have a plan—it's a report that this government commissioned from the Chief Scientist of Australia, Alan Finkel. It's a blueprint that, if implemented, will deliver more renewable energy, more gas-fired power, more batteries and storage, more reliability into the system and, most importantly of all, lower prices for Australian households and businesses. It's a blueprint that has been endorsed by the states and territories and endorsed by industry.

This morning, we read an article in Fairfax—'Turnbull retreats on clean energy'—that it's not going to be backed by this government. A report commissioned by this government, from its own Chief Scientist, is not going to be backed by this weak Prime Minister. I think it was pointed out in question time that one MP from that side of the House said to Fairfax:

… if we were going to do Finkel's [clean energy target], it would be done already.

And you have to wonder why? There's a deep crisis. There's a clear blueprint that the government itself commissioned. There's strong consensus behind it. There's an opposition willing to engage with it. Well, we know the answer; it has a familiar ring to it. We saw it in The Australian newspaper in an article headed, 'Tony Abbott fuels push from backbench against clean energy target'. In it, the member for Warringah very helpfully outlines his alternative energy policy, which is the heart of the problem here—that is, the coalition's focus is not on reliable power, the coalition's focus is not on affordable power, the coalition is obsessed with this fantasy that Australia's energy future lies in building new coal-fired power stations. That is the plan that the member for Warringah is forcing on this government. We know it is a fantasy. We know from the lending industry, from the banks and from equity investors that there is not going to be a new coal-fired power station built in this country.

Everyone knows that the AEMO report that was released last week on dispatchable power was commissioned by the coalition in the hope that it would recommend new coal-fired power stations as a solution to their energy crisis, but, of course, it didn't do that. It is time for this Prime Minister to stop indulging the fantasy that the member for Warringah drives: that the future of Australia's energy is in new coal-fired power stations.

The future of Australia's energy sector was outlined by the Chief Scientist in a blueprint commissioned by this government. It's more renewable energy. It's more gas-fired generation. It's more batteries and other storage systems. It's more reliability in the system and the lower prices for consumers, businesses, and households that that will deliver. This Prime Minister is weak in refusing to argue against and resist the push by the member for Warringah to take us back to the 20th century. His decision to play politics, the personal abuse, the name-calling, the misleading statements about clear data from their own regulators about what has happened to power prices under this government's watch—it means one thing: Australians will continue to suffer higher prices and they'll continue to suffer the risk of blackouts across summers in New South Wales, in Victoria and in South Australia, across the system, representing two-thirds of the nation's population. If this government doesn't stand up to the member for Warringah and endorse the blueprint delivered by the Chief Scientist, Australian households and businesses will hold this government to account.

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