Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Murray. Labor loves higher power prices, Labor believes in higher power prices, and their policies at both federal and state level are designed to deliver higher power prices—and that is bad for our hospitals. That is bad for Echuca hospital, which the member for Murray believes in, supports and has been an advocate for throughout his time in parliament. Why is this important? It's important because there are not just two policies but two fundamental approaches here. One side of parliament consistently advocates for higher power prices, and then puts in place policies to drive them up, and one side believes in lower power prices and has taken steps to that effect.

For the people of Murray, this matters in the real world, because what we saw at Echuca hospital is the real world. The chief executive said only a month ago that the consequence of the changes in Victoria's power system is a $375,000 a year cost to Echuca hospital. When Hazelwood was deliberately knocked out by the Victorian government, the people of Echuca and the hospital in Echuca paid that price. As the chief executive said:

It's significant and it's a serious issue for the whole community—

in terms of the power price hike—

but in the context of public hospitals it has a material impact on our budget in this current financial year.

In other words, Labor policies are deliberately driving up the cost of electricity and the cost of operations for hospitals, not just in Victoria but around the country.

By contrast, we abolished the carbon tax and it did drive down electricity prices. We have abolished limited merits review, and that will have an impact. The Prime Minister has specifically worked alongside the energy minister with the gas companies, and the wholesale price of gas has dropped from $12 to $7. Now there is the energy security guarantee for Australia, and that is the next step. All are about bringing down power prices.

What we see now, though, is what happens when Labor gets its hands on the levers of power. In Victoria it knocked over the Hazelwood power station. In South Australia it literally blew up the Northern power station. Last time at national level it introduced a carbon tax, and next time it is going to introduce a $66 billion hit on bills for families, on bills for pensioners and on bills for our hospitals. If you believe in the security of our hospital system, you will not believe in Labor's approach to power pricing. It's a threat to pensioners, it's a threat to families, and, above all else, it's a threat to our hospital system.

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