Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to make a contribution to this debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019. This is a bill that lapsed at the end of the last parliament. It gives the government a raft of new powers, including, in the case of extreme misconduct, the ability to force an electricity company to divest assets. Labor opposed the first version of this legislation, which left the door wide open to privatisation of state owned generators and lacked the checks and balances that are fundamental to such intrusive state powers. Since then, the government has made some substantive changes, and the bill before us addresses the most serious deficiencies in the bill that we saw in the 45th Parliament. For this reason, Labor won't be opposing it today, although we do have some substantive amendments. However, this is far from the main issue when it comes to electricity and this government.

The real issue here is that the legislation is little more than a transparent attempt at distraction from the fact that this government has simply failed to do its job. This government's belligerent refusal to do anything about ballooning electricity prices is absolutely shameful, and now, in a tacit admission of its own powerlessness, it is resorting to threats, intimidation and bluster in the hope that no-one will notice it's not in control. Indeed, this bill is a humiliating admission by the Liberals that they have colossally failed to deliver clean, reliable and affordable power—not only that, but the government has also tried to set fire to all of the existing policies Australia had to reduce emissions and encourage the production of cheap, clean electricity.

The government thinks that these powers will reduce electricity prices. Labor is deeply sceptical that this will be the case. This bill certainly won't do anything to fix the serious energy crisis facing this country that the government itself has created. When it comes to energy policy, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government has demonstrated time and again that it's pathologically incapable of delivering the leadership that this country so desperately deserves and needs.

Energy is a fundamental element of every economy. It plays a huge role in the competitiveness of business and contributes significantly to the cost of living for citizens. As the single highest-emitting sector, it will be fundamental to slashing pollution and meeting our international climate obligations. But after proposing and then knocking off 16 different energy policies—that's right; 16—not to mention two leaders, the government has crawled to a standstill on this vital policy area. The truth is that, at the end of day, Mr Morrison has utterly given up on advancing the national interests, in favour of saving his own job. Make no mistake: responsibility for ballooning electricity bills lies squarely at the feet of this government. Australia has bountiful natural energy advantages. With the right energy policy, we should be able to attract investment, create jobs and drive down emissions—and all of us will benefit from clean, reliable and affordable power. But this government has gone to civil war with itself, ensuring that this will never happen under its watch.

Australia is now in the midst of a full blown energy crisis, thanks to the inability of successive Liberal Prime Ministers to listen to the experts and stand up to the anti-science knuckle-draggers in its party rooms—the very people who, for some unfathomable reason, seem to call the shots when it comes to energy policy. Over the last six years, this government has had no less than 16 policies—I repeat: 16—and not one of them got approval from the rabid right to get past the starting blocks. As a result, we are now seeing rising emissions, shrinking competitiveness, ballooning energy prices and an unwillingness from business to invest until government delivers policy certainty. Wholesale power prices have climbed 158 per cent since 2015. Business is hurting, household budgets are getting smashed and, tragically, millions of Australians are still struggling to keep the lights on. Indeed, households are having their electricity disconnected at an alarming rate, because they can't keep up with the spiralling costs. Of course, it's the most vulnerable people—the very people already under siege from this government's savage agenda—who are getting hit the hardest.

Last week, in Anti-Poverty Week, St Vincent de Paul put out an important report looking at household electricity disconnections across the country. It gave a stark picture of just how bad things have got. It showed that, far from being an anomaly, disconnections are commonplace. In my community the figures are shocking. I would like to read some out today. In postcode 2300, which takes in the inner-city suburbs of Newcastle, Cooks Hill, Bar Beach, Newcastle East and The Hill, a staggering 6.4 per cent of households had their electricity disconnected between July 2015 and June 2018. Newcastle West residents did not fare much better, with 5.99 per cent of accounts being disconnected. Hamilton, which is home to a large number of extremely vulnerable people living in public housing, wasn't far behind, with 5.93 per cent of all accounts disconnected. Indeed, out of every single populated postcode in my electorate, the very lowest disconnection rate was 2.4 per cent of households. That is thousands of households across Newcastle. This is appalling! This government has abandoned the most vulnerable people in the country and left a policy void the size of the planet, just so it can appease the climate change deniers that populate its own party room. Yet again, the government has chosen personal interest over the national interest. This government needs to stop its childish factional bickering, get over its aversion to science and deliver an energy policy that will drive investment, create jobs, bring down carbon emissions and cut electricity prices.

Clearly, this bill won't end the Liberals' energy crisis. It will do absolutely nothing to address the fundamental problem: the government needs to deliver an energy policy which gives certainty and supports investment in clean, reliable and affordable energy. As we've seen in recent years, energy for the Liberals isn't so much a sector as a means of tearing down leaders. Malcolm Turnbull tore down Tony Abbott for his failure to do anything, only to find himself torn down for hinting he might want to do something. Now Scott Morrison knows the lay of the land, and he's doing exactly what he needs to do in order to keep his job, and that is nothing. What a sorry state of affairs.

The narrative around energy that you hear from those opposite is unlike anything you'll find outside right-wing conspiracy blocs. In the real world, everybody understands that we must be charting a path towards a decarbonised economy. Beyond this House, people understand that government needs to provide policy certainty for business to invest. Outside of this place, experts agree that we should be setting the policy levers to encourage investment in the cheapest form of energy, and that is renewables. Sadly, the rest of the world understands that we have a limited time frame for action. And yet, when I step into this chamber, I get transported into a parallel universe—an alternative reality where the planet is not getting hotter, where business doesn't need certainty, where renewable energy is the devil and nuclear energy is a viable way forward. But, unlike the fairytales those opposite tell themselves, the reality is that they've sent Australia down a path of higher pollution, more expensive energy costs and reduced competitiveness for business.

As I mentioned earlier, we've seen wholesale power prices climb by 158 per cent since 2015. Emissions are on a relentless path upwards. Businesses are losing contracts to overseas competition. Households are struggling to keep their heads above water. Consumers are closing their wallets at the very time we are seeing growth slow to a crawl. And, of course, just like the member for Wentworth before him, Mr Morrison is far more focused on keeping his own job than developing a responsible energy policy in the national interest. So, here we are. We have a government that's brazenly abandoned any plan for either energy prices or climate change. We have a government that has created a policy void the size of a planet. And we have another leader so desperate to keep his job that he won't even try to stand up to the knuckle-draggers on the government benches that have so damaged this country with their refusal to accept the science. Now the government has backed itself into a corner, with its only remaining option being to shake a big stick at electricity companies.

As I've outlined, this is the second version of this bill. The first one was originally developed in response to an ACCC electricity pricing review. It gave government broad powers to insert itself into private energy businesses. This included the power to force companies to divest their assets—importantly, something that was never recommended in the review. Thankfully, the first version of this bill never came to a vote. I suspect that is because there was a very real chance the unthinkable would happen, and that is that the government would lose on the floor of parliament.

While this isn't a bill Labor would have drafted, we can see that the most objectionable elements of the former bill have been removed. Indeed, Labor was very concerned that the provisions in the former bill would have allowed divestment orders to be used to transfer state-owned generation assets to a private operator. It's no secret that privatisation of the electricity sector has hurt our country. Before privatisation, Australia had some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. They had been dropping for years. Nonetheless, since the 1990s Australians have been told splitting and privatising electricity functions would deliver more competitive organisations and cheaper power. Well, of course, this hasn't happened. Prices ballooned by 170 per cent from 1995 to 2012. This is four times the CPI growth. When the McKell Institute looked into the issue, it found that the private networks underperformed their public counterparts and had higher overheads. The Australia Institute also found that private electricity networks had reduced work output and higher staffing costs, particularly in management levels.

This is why it's so important that the government removes privatisation in the version of the bill before us today. There are other substantive changes, too, including a much greater role for the ACCC and Federal Court to provide oversight and advice on the exercising of these new powers. This is important. It is always preferable for an independent expert body to be overseeing these decision, ensuring that they can't be used intemperately for political ends.

Again, this isn't a bill that Labor would have delivered. Indeed, we would have focused on delivering the coherent, coordinated, national energy plan that all the experts agree this country needs. That being said, we are not on the government benches and we accept that some changes have been made to remove the worst elements of the former legislation. However, while we're glad the government has explicitly ruled out full privatisation, we're still concerned at the potential for part privatisation. That is why we will be moving an amendment that will guarantee this cannot happen. We will also move another substantial amendment to ensure that workers' rights are maintained in the event of divestment. However, we're still worried about unintended consequences. For this reason, we're moving amendments that will mandate a review of the operations of the bill.

In summary, while this bill is not as odious as the one the government brought before this place in the last parliament, it will do nothing to address the real issue, which is the government's egregious and belligerent refusal to do its job on energy policy.

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