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

I am pleased to rise on this MPI. Of course, it's an MPI that's designed to distract from the indecision and division of those opposite. We know they're paralysed by that indecision. In 10 minutes, the member opposite did not even mention a 2030 target. We know why he didn't mention a 2030 target: because those opposite can't agree on it. You've got the member for Hunter up there saying, 'Adopt the coalition's target.' That's what he's saying—sensible chap! These guys down here can't agree on what it's going to be, so they have no 2030 target. Now let's look at how profound that is. You can't be in the Paris Agreement without a 2030 target. They are walking away from the Paris Agreement. That is their policy position. With no 2030 target, that's where you wind up.

On this side of the place, we are focused on affordable, reliable energy as we bring down our emissions, and our plan is working. We've had eight consecutive quarters of year-on-year CPI price reductions in electricity, with over nine per cent reduction in the last four months alone—9.2 per cent.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

The member for Shortland—I'll take that interjection—knows that that's good for manufacturers in this country, good for small businesses in this country and good for households in this country. The wholesale prices, which are the prices that the big manufacturers rely on, are 50 per cent lower than they were several years ago. They are the reductions that we are seeing. They are the outcomes that are happening right here and now. With the default market offer, the price cap that we put in place several years ago to protect those consumers who aren't in a position to go out and negotiate a better deal, in the last year alone we've seen an average bill for a household come down by $136 and for a small business by $577. That's on top of two years of DMO price cap reductions leading up to the last year as well. Now is a great time to shop around. Those wholesale price reductions are coming through to customers. The best way to do that is to jump on the Energy Made Easy website and upload your historical usage. The savings are there, coming from the policies we have been putting in place: the price cap, the additional supply and making sure the big generators don't leave without replacement.

Crucial to all of this is making sure we have enough dispatchable power in our system. We don't want to see a repeat of what the Victorian government did when we saw the closure of Hazelwood and a near doubling of wholesale prices in Victoria as a result of that. As we look forward to future closures like that of Liddell in 2023, we need to make sure that the replacement happens. We've set a target of 1,000 megawatts that needs to be in place to do that. If necessary, we will build a gas generator in the Hunter Valley, a good place to have a gas generator. The member for Shortland knows that. That will contain prices and create jobs. It will generate and sustain jobs in those crucial manufacturing industries.

On top of that, we are seeing outcomes on emissions reductions. We beat our 2020 targets by 459 million tonnes. When those opposite left government, they forecast that emissions last year would be over 635 million tonnes. This was their forecast, with a carbon tax in place. You know what they were? They were close to 500 million tonnes, almost 20 per cent lower than their forecast. And we got rid of their carbon tax. We got rid of it. I'll come back to the carbon tax in a moment, but we got rid of that.

If we look to our 2030 forecast, it is, on a per-person basis, more ambitious than that of many countries in the world—Norway, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and France. It's more ambitious than any of those countries. In the last two years alone, we have improved our position and the performance we're expecting on the 2030 targets by 630 million tonnes. That is the equivalent of taking every car off the road for 15 years. We're not going to do that. We don't need to. We believe in strengthening the economy as we bring down emissions, and that is exactly what is happening.

In 2020, we saw a record seven gigawatts of renewable capacity built in this country, increasingly dominated by household solar because the costs are coming down. In the whole time those opposite were in power, between 2007 and 2013, 5.6 gigawatts was built. In one year we've built more than they did in the whole time they were last in power. We have the highest rate of household solar in the world, with one in four houses with household solar on roofs.

We have to balance that with flexible dispatchable generation, which is why we're investing in crucial projects like Snowy 2.0 and making sure there's enough gas generation, because that flexible gas generation does the job of ensuring the system is balanced to deliver the affordable, reliable energy Australians need.

We know that the answer to bringing down emissions in Australia and around the world is technology, not taxation. It's accelerating technologies like hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and soil carbon which doesn't just bring down emissions but increases the productivity of agriculture in the country. Low-carbon materials like steel, aluminium and cement—this is how you bring down emissions and ensure that industry is strong in this country. Indeed, we know, based on our past experience, that our $18 billion of investment in technology, which will scale up to $70 billion with private sector investment alongside ours, will create 130,000 jobs by 2030. That's without a carbon tax.

We have just been lectured by the member for McMahon, who's new to the job. But it's worth having a look at what the member for McMahon has said in the past about climate policies. Just before the last election, he was on ABC's 7.30 bragging about being the key architect of Labor's failed climate policies they took to the last election. It was those policies that included a 45 per cent emission reduction target that we know was going to slash jobs and slash industries and was effectively just a sneaky carbon tax. The member for Shortland got it right. He described it that way. An 'implicit carbon tax' was the way he put it.

When it comes to the member for McMahon, every problem has a simple solution—and it's more tax. He went for the tax on retirees. He went for the tax on homeowners. This time, they'll be coming after every hardworking Australian with—you guessed it!—a tax on electricity, because they know no other way. That is all they ever have. That's why they're refusing to commit to a 2030 target. We know the only way they would be able to reduce the 2030 target they really have in the top drawer—the 45 per cent emissions reduction target—is through a tax for hardworking Australians on their electricity, gas, cars and you name it. It'll be on their cattle. It'll be on farmers' cattle. The burping cow will get a tax, because that is the only way they know how to do it. Meanwhile, on this side of this place, we are focused on the solutions that will deliver reducing emissions, falling emissions, without destroying jobs and investment.

The member for Hunter and some of his other colleagues are right. He described the member for McMahon's predecessor in this role, the member for Hindmarsh, as having been dumped because he was 'as useless as a vegan in a butcher shop'. That's how he was described. You can move the member for Hindmarsh out and the member for McMahon in, but it doesn't change the fact that they're on the same horse. They've changed the jockey, but it's the same horse. The member for Hunter again had it right when he said that, after 14 years of trying, the Labor Party has not made one contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in this country. That comes from the member for McMahon's own side. That's what the member for Hunter has said about his own side. I couldn't have put it better myself. I have no doubt that, when it comes to climate and energy, the member for McMahon will repeat what he said when he was the shadow Treasurer: 'If you don't like our approach, don't vote for us.' This arrogant approach is now being applied to energy policy.

Well, we are focused on delivering affordable, reliable energy as we bring down our emissions. We are delivering. The outcomes are there. There's been a five per cent reduction in the electricity grid in the last year alone. We're delivering on our 2020 targets, we'll deliver on our 2030 targets at a canter, and we'll deliver in the longer term by focusing on technology, not taxation.

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