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

I thank the honourable member for her question and for her strong focus on a fair deal for energy for the people in her electorate, because on this side of the House we are focused on lowering energy prices and ensuring the reliability of the power grid. That's why from 2 July we've seen the introduction of the retailer reliability obligation. That means that the big energy companies have to have supply in place to meet their customers' needs years ahead of time. It's also why we've created our program to underwrite new, reliable generation in the market, pushing power prices down and keeping 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, and that's why we're sharply focused on keeping our existing coal and gas generation in the market running at full tilt. I'm pleased to say that we will be bringing forward later this year the big stick legislation that those opposite have voted against 13 times in this parliament. This legislation is vital to ensuring that we have another tool in the toolkit to maintain supply in the market and drive prices down. We saw in 2016, as a result of the reckless targets of the Victorian Labor government, the exit of the Hazelwood Power Station, and the mere announcement of that exit saw a doubling of wholesale prices in Victoria. Since then we've seen in Victoria, as a result of the exit of Hazelwood, prices hiking and lights going out. Two hundred thousand Victorian households and businesses lost their power last summer.

Despite the clear failure of that policy and a similar policy from the previous South Australian Labor government, those opposite want to roll this policy out nationally. During the last election, we saw independent modelling telling us that doing so would double the wholesale prices of electricity and triple the price of gas. We on this side of the House sit on the side of a fair deal for the hardworking small businesses and households of Australia.

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

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