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

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. I know that she supports the Turnbull government's moves to drive down power prices, knowing that, under the coalition, power prices will always be lower and, under the Labor Party, they'll always go up. That is the track record of the Labor government when they were last in office, when power prices doubled. They went up each and every year.

The member for Chisholm comes from the great state of Victoria. But, unfortunately, under the Andrews Labor government, Victoria now has the second highest prices in the country. Last September, the Australian Energy Market Operator put out a report which said that there was up to a 43 per cent chance of load shedding in Victoria. That's a euphemism for blackouts, and that is because the Andrews government cheered the closure of the Hazelwood Power Station, which could provide up to a quarter of Victoria's power supply. If you look at the last six months of 2017 in Victoria, Victoria was importing power instead of exporting it to the rest of the grid.

The member for Chisholm knows that, since we've come to government, we have put downward pressure on prices by getting more gas into the market by reining in the power of the network companies, which, if the Labor Party had thought about it when they were in office, would have saved consumers $6.5 million by getting a better deal from the retailers for millions of Australian customers; and, of course, through the National Energy Guarantee. This has been supported by groups in the member's electorate like Asaleo Care in Box Hill, which is a leading personal care and hygiene company with landmark brands such as Sorbent, Libra and Handee. It started in 1932. It was listed on the ASX in 2014. It has 11 manufacturing and distribution facilities and employs 1,000 people. They have got behind the National Energy Guarantee. The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with 15,000 members, said of the National Energy Guarantee:

The NEG remains an important reform to improve energy policy predictability, reduce risk and encourage investment in new electricity generation.

We know that Manufacturing Australia has written in the Herald Sun about how important it is for the one million manufacturing workers across the country to have the National Energy Guarantee.

So, at the end of the day, if you believe in lower power prices, if you want to see Australian households $550 a year better off, if you want to see the wholesale price down by 20 per cent, if you want to be side by side with the big employers across the country, you get behind the National Energy Guarantee and you don't hide from your responsibilities, as the Leader of the Opposition is trying to do.

See this speech in context