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

I thank the member for Dunkley for his question. I know he is deeply committed to lowering the power bills of his constituents and ensuring a more reliable supply. That is why we've taken action on a number of fronts, recognising there is no single silver bullet to lower power prices. As the Prime Minister mentioned, we have been successful in passing through the Senate the abolition of the limited merits review process. In Labor's own election document in 2016, they said, 'Power bills have skyrocketed and this has been a result of massive investments in networks, poles and wires.' But what did they do when they were in government? Absolutely nothing. That is why we have now abolished the limited merits review process. The work we have done with retailers can save a household a thousand dollars or more, by simply changing retailers or changing contracts. Investment in storage is another important reform in order to reduce the volatility that has been driving up power prices.

When it comes to gas, the Labor Party did nothing when they were in office. The member for Port Adelaide has now admitted that they knew power prices would rise as a result of the tight supply on the east coast due to setting up the export of large amounts of gas without the necessary supply for the domestic market. So we spoke to AEMO and we spoke to the ACCC, and we received their advice about what would be required to ensure that there are no domestic shortfalls in 2018 and 2019. We were told that there could potentially be a shortfall of 107 petajoules in 2018 and 102 petajoules in 2019.

As a result of the work we did, we were able to secure agreement from the gas companies to ensure that there won't be those shortfalls in those years. But the long-term solution is to get more gas out of the ground. That will occur only if the states develop their gas. The Northern Territory is sitting on 200 years worth of supply. The Andrews government is sitting on 40 years worth of supply. In New South Wales, if Narrabri were developed, it could provide up to 50 per cent of New South Wales's gas. And the Chief Scientist himself has made it very clear that you can develop unconventional gas resources in a scientifically proven and environmentally sustainable way on a case-by-case basis.

So I say to the Labor Party: use your good offices with your Labor comrades in the other states. Get their support for lifting these bans and moratoriums. But they're only costing jobs and they're only sending prices higher, and as a result of our interventions in the market—

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

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