Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always good get up to talk about energy, energy prices and renewable energy under this government, because every time you get up and speak they give you new material, new things, to just shake your head at in disbelief. The record of those opposite is an absolute cluster of mess, policy tangents and ridiculous ideology in slowing down the development of renewable energy in this country. It is not just me saying that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy in this country. It's actually the government's own energy agency, AEMO. In all of their reports AEMO says the cheapest form of energy in this country is solar and wind, backed and firmed by some form of dispatchable power, some form of storage. But the cheapest form of firmed energy also included in batteries or hydro or whatever—yes, there are other forms of firming power that the government can use that are still cheaper than developing new coal-fired power stations.

But the government wasted $4 million on the Collinsville coal-fired power station. That thing is not going to get built. To the people of Collinsville: you have been sold a complete dud, a lemon, by this government willing to appease the extreme Right of their party, who doesn't even believe in climate change, in order to come up with these ridiculous economic proposals like that. Four million dollars for the Collinsville coal-fired power station is just absurd. If they actually build it it's going to drive up power prices. If they were actually to go through it, it would cause $17 billion of government liability, because that would be the only customer that that plant would have when the rest of the market will be using the much cheaper form of renewable energy.

But it doesn't end there. Last week we had the minister for energy—he's put aside his wars with Clover Moore. He's decided he's going to stop downloading documents off the City of Sydney website and he is going to concentrate on his portfolio. He's not going to bring in a national energy policy—no, no, no. That would be far too difficult for this energy minister. We're not going bring in something that's going to encourage the private sector to invest in the Australian market, to bring forward the amount of renewable energy capacity and potential in this country, to bring down power prices—no, no, no. That would be too difficult for the minister in charge of the energy portfolio. What does our minister for energy decide to do?

He decides to spend $600 million to build a gas-fired power station that, it is estimated, would run around two per cent of the time and, once it is constructed, would employ 10 people, and he pretends that this is some sort of brilliant solution to our energy needs. This is a colossal waste of money.

But the kicker is that, as always with this energy minister, you've got to look one layer deeper. What's the actual story behind this? Well, surprise, surprise: this piece of land is owned by a gentleman who is a Liberal Party donor. I'm not going to do him the honour of putting his name in Hansard, but you can google this fellow. There have been well-documented involvements and dealings, and there have been financial benefits to the Liberal Party thanks to this fellow. So they're going to spend $600 million building a gas-fired power station that's not going to deliver jobs for the region, on land owned by a guy who donates significant amounts of money to the Liberal Party. This stinks.

This isn't even going to the fact to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation bill has completely disappeared off our shelves. This is the very government organisation that is designed to stimulate renewable energy, bring down electricity prices and give the Australian public more investment in good, financially viable clean energy projects. What did the government try to do? They tried to gut the act, and then, of course, the member for New England, the gift that keeps on giving, decided to bring forward amendments that were so unpalatable, so far beyond the realm of reasonableness, that not even his own government could support them. So they've completely ripped out that bill from the parliament.

This government is a joke when it comes to energy prices. This government is a joke when it comes to energy policy. All they are interested in doing is supporting their Liberal mates, and the Australian people are going to be paying for it. The Australian people will be paying higher energy prices, and we won't be tackling climate change as we should.

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