Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State (House)) Share this | Hansard source

This coalition policy of forced divestment is a stinker for all of the reasons the members for McMahon and Port Adelaide raised a few moments ago, and we heard about it in question time as well. We know it will reduce investment and we know it will push up prices as a consequence. But there has been a new revelation which has been confirmed by the energy minister himself which could see the forced privatisation in my home state of Queensland—or Western Australia, Tasmania or other places around Australia—of public energy assets. This is a dangerous and disastrous policy which has been plucked directly from the Liberals' dumpster fire of internal division and energy policy dysfunction. What this policy ignores is that the people of Queensland, the people of the finest state in the Commonwealth, have repeatedly told governments that they don't want these public assets sold. By ignoring them, those opposite are poking Queenslanders in the eye with the big stick. Instead of a big stick, we are going to have a garage sale of public assets despite the fact that Queenslanders have made their views repeatedly known, over and over again.

The Minister for Energy in Queensland, Dr Anthony Lynham, a great guy, has written repeatedly to the Treasurer to seek clarification. Maybe that clarification has come today; I hope it has. He has sought repeatedly to work out what is going on here with this forced divestment policy and its impact on forced privatisations. In an article in The Courier Mail today by Renee Viellaris, the energy minister confirms that one of the consequences of their discredited policy could be forced privatisation of energy assets in Queensland. When you read the article, you notice a couple of things. The first thing you notice—the reason the member for Mackellar has gone quiet—is that it says the members for Mackellar, Hughes and Curtin and other members have gone to the ministers and said, 'This policy's done.' They've said it's done for a whole range of reasons. But the other conspicuous thing you notice in this article is that none of the members who said the policy is done is a Queenslander. In fact, when you look through the list, all the Queenslanders have gone missing, as they always do. And then it says that Queensland LNP MPs Keith Pitt, the member for Hinkler—who is also here—and George Christensen, the member for Dawson, gave spirited endorsements of the laws. Not only have they failed to listen to Queenslanders; they've given a spirited endorsement of a policy which could see the forced privatisation of Queensland's energy assets.

See this speech in context