Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question, because she is absolutely focused on the interests of her constituents, including her farmers, her hardworking small businesses, the families and the industry that provides so many of those crucial jobs to the people of Robertson. She is focused on a fair deal for energy, as are we. A fair deal for energy can be achieved, delivering a strong economy, whilst we reach our international emissions obligations. And we'll achieve those on the back of a record $25 billion of renewable energy investment in the pipeline right now. We are leading the world per capita. It is double the next country in the world. Our challenge now is to ensure that we have enough reliable generation in the system to keep the lights on and to keep power affordable for all Australians. That's why, from 1 July, we introduced the Retailer Reliability Obligation, which requires the energy companies to guarantee supply to meet the needs of their customers three years ahead of time. It's also why we've created a program to underwrite new reliable generation into the market to push power prices down and to keep the lights on.

It's simply not enough to have power when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. We need it 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. That's why we're sharply focused on keeping our existing coal and gas generation in the market running at full tilt. But there are alternative approaches. If you take Victoria as an example, the state Labor government, through their ideological focus on reckless targets, has simply trashed their grid, forcing reliable energy generation out of their grid. That has already led to blackouts. Last January we saw 200,000 businesses and households in Victoria lose their lights. They lost their power, yet the state Labor government has done nothing to improve the reliability of their grid since then.

Here in this place, with the reckless targets that it took to the last election, Labor has committed to roll out that same approach across the country. Worse still, during that campaign, those opposite failed to answer the most basic questions about the costs and the impacts of their policies, whilst independent modelling told us that those policies would double the price of electricity and triple the price of gas. Only the Liberal-National government can be trusted to deliver a strong economy and a fair deal on energy.

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