Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

This is the legislation that the House is being asked to vote on. I assume that every member opposite, by which I mean the government, has read this legislation, 33 pages long. This is the explanatory memorandum for the legislation, 109 pages long. If government members are doing their job, they've all read it and they're all aware of what's in it. It has been lifting the standards of those opposite, I note. If those members opposite have read it, they'd be aware of the interventionist nature of the legislation they are not only proposing to vote for but also proposing to ram through the House in breach of all protocols, conventions and understandings. That's what this so-called conservative government is doing: throwing out years of convention and years of understanding of conventional economics.

It was bad enough before this afternoon, when the government was simply proposing to introduce legislation different to that which was consulted upon. The government released draft legislation. It was out for a very short period of time, a few days, for consultation. Business and those affected had around three days to provide their response to the legislation. Three days is tight, but I tell you what: it is better than zero minutes, which is the chance for consultation that the government has now given the industry

I have an advantage. As a member of parliament, I have the legislation. I went up to the table to get it. I confess to the House that I've not yet read it. It was only introduced a short time ago. I've had a chance to skim through it. Nobody outside this building has read it. Nobody outside this building has had the chance to analyse it. The truth is neither have government members opposite. They haven't read it. It hasn't been to the Liberal and National party rooms. It hasn't been through their normal, proper processes. This legislation has not been to the party room because they didn't have it. Was this legislation tabled before the Liberal and National party rooms? Did they have the chance to go through the 109 pages of the explanatory memorandum? Did they have the chance to go through this legislation clause by clause? The fact of the matter is they did not. They know it. That's the fact. They didn't have the chance to go through it. This was bad enough. Industry and business were concerned enough about this before this charlatan excuse for a government did this stunt of trying to force it through the parliament this afternoon.

A couple of days ago there was a joint statement from the Australian Energy Council, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, the Business Council of Australia, the Energy Networks Australia and the Energy Users Association of Australia. They said:

Australia's business community and the energy sector urge the Australian Government to abandon proposed legislation that will impede the broader investment environment in Australia and specifically discourage badly needed investment in the energy sector.

Let's have another look at those people who co-signed this statement. The government, and this poor excuse for an energy minister, will say, 'It's just big business—those evil people in big business.' The Energy Users Association are the people who represent the big consumers of energy. I would have thought that if this legislation was going to put downward pressure on prices the Energy Users Association might be rather in favour of that. The big energy users across the country probably think that's a good idea. The fact of the matter is that the Energy Users Association aren't stupid. They know that this legislation will, in fact, put upward pressure on prices because it will crimp investment.

When you've got a coalition of the energy generators and the energy users saying that this government has got it terribly wrong, you would think it would give this government pause for thought. It might give them a moments reflection. What does this government do? They say: 'No, we're going to double-down. We're going to make it worse by completely rewriting the legislation overnight in the Treasury—pulling an all-nighter down at the Treasury rewriting the legislation—at the government's behest.' I have every confidence in the Treasury, but with the best will in the world there may well be mistakes in this legislation. Who would know? Nobody has seen it before today. They have made a bad situation very much worse.

The signatories to the statement go on to point out just how bad this legislation is, and I hazard a guess that they continue to have very significant concerns with the legislation as it has been redrafted. A short time ago, the Australian Energy Council noted:

We are disappointed the Government has introduced this Bill into the Parliament, not only because it represents unprecedented market intervention, but also because of the secretive way the Bill has been developed without any reasonable consultation or consideration of its impacts.

They went on to say:

This Bill, if passed, will have far-reaching consequences beyond the energy industry. And yet, despite these ramifications and without the support of any industry body, consumer group or even its own regulator, the Government is pressing on regardless.

The ACCC concluded there was no need for these intrusive powers in the already heavily regulated energy market. It is disappointing that we are not focusing on implementing the positive recommendations in the ACCC Report which would actually improve market transparency and price outcomes for customers.

Instead the ACCC's recommendations have been pushed aside in favour of heavy-handed and poorly drafted market interventions.

This is all the Energy Council—

There remain constitutional issues with the Bill and it is devoid of detail, uncertain and vague to the extent that market participants could not be confident about how to comply with it.

Given the Government says it wants to lower prices and encourage investment it is hard to understand why this Bill, that would achieve the precise opposite, is necessary.

The Bill if passed would only raise risk and costs, leading to higher prices for Australian homes and businesses.

We urge the Government to reconsider the Bill and instead return to negotiations with industry to deliver better outcomes for customers.

That was issued at 4.40 pm today. Perhaps the Energy Council did not realise at that point—and why would they have?—that the government was virtually, as that statement was being released, doubling down and not listening to the Energy Council, not returning to consultations but seeking to ram the legislation through this House.

I've said before that this legislation is more in keeping with what you would see in Venezuela than what you would expect in Australia.

See this speech in context