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

So we know exactly what Labor's policies are going to result in—massive hikes in energy costs and a big drop in reliability. Blackouts, blackouts and more blackouts is what we've seen from Labor, and higher and higher bills. Energy costs doubled under the last Labor government. The Energy Security Board's advice is that we should integrate climate policy and energy policy through the market to ensure the least-cost route to deliver the lowest prices we can for Australian families. That's their advice.

We keep on being asked for guarantees. I can guarantee that the authors of this recommendation know a lot more about energy and economics than anyone sitting opposite us today. These are the people, chaired by Kerry Schott—

Mr Bowen interjecting—

I heard the member for McMahon talking about high school economics—very good; there's much to be commended. Kerry Schott has a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Oxford. She has chaired energy companies, with John Pierce, the head of the AMC, one of the finest Treasury secretaries in the history of the state of New South Wales, and he has been involved in the energy sector for decades. Audrey Zibelman was the energy market operator in New York. And then, of course, you have Paula Conboy, who was a regulator in Ontario. This group of people, assembled expertise, was put together as recommended by Alan Finkel, and we went to them for advice. And this is the advice we got: what this will deliver is cheaper electricity, lower wholesale costs, savings for households and reliability. That's the triple bottom line we're delivering. It's the triple bottom line Labor is destroying and defying. They failed. We've got the answers here from the ESB; Labor should adopt them. (Time expired)

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

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