Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think we can all appreciate the hypocrisy of the Liberals attacking the government on energy prices after the decade in which they did nothing, particularly the member for Fairfax getting all yeasty over there. It's no secret that, when in government, those opposite had no effective plan to deliver cheaper energy to Australian families and businesses. After nine years, several energy ministers, and over 20 different energy policies, the former Liberal government did nothing to secure the long-term affordability and security of our country's energy supply. Instead, they spent years squabbling amongst themselves, neglecting our national energy infrastructure while they were busy arguing about how long they could delay the inevitable transition to more efficient, cheaper and cleaner energy technology. Prime ministers were rolled. Deputy prime ministers were removed and energy ministers changed. While there was plenty of action in the Liberal Party party room, the National Party party room and the coalition joint party room, there was absolutely no action where it mattered.

Just before the music stopped and time ran out on the former government, the now shadow Treasurer sought to cover up a decade of inaction. Four days before the election was called, he amended the industry code for electricity retailers to delay the release of a 19.7 per cent increase to the default market offer until after the election—a shameless and desperate attempt to hide his failure to deliver any new energy infrastructure for the Australian people. As the House has heard, after promising a billion dollars for 3,800 megawatts of new generation, the member for Hume was utterly unable to deliver.

As we have said time and time again on this side, renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. In fact, the CSIRO and AEMO have confirmed that wind and solar are by far the cheapest source of electricity generation and storage in Australia.. Delivering more renewables will put downward pressure on energy bills, which is why, under Labor's Powering Australia plan, the share of low-cost renewables in the National Electricity Market will increase to 82 per cent by 2030.

We also understand that delivering more renewable energy generation is only part of the solution to provide more short-term relief. The government is delivering significant reform of the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which allows government to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of natural gas to meet the needs of Australian energy users. Most notably, we are moving to quarterly based consideration of the forecast demand to ensure that the mechanism is sufficiently responsive to market changes.

The Minister for Resources also announced in September that the Albanese Labor government had signed a new heads of agreement with east coast LNG exporters to shore up our domestic gas supply by delivering an additional 157 petajoules to the east coast market next year. These are practical approaches; they're smart ideas that actually deliver outcomes for Australian households, that drive household energy prices down and that support Australian manufacturing with practical outcomes. As part of last month's budget the Albanese Labor government also asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to examine the code of conduct that governs the agreements between gas suppliers and gas customers, to improve price transparency.

The national energy network cannot be overhauled overnight. A decade of inaction and a decade of failure by those opposite has left Australian households and businesses in dire circumstances. But this government is getting on with the hard work that's required to address that. We're ensuring that Australians have access to affordable energy in the long term, but that requires regular and ongoing investment—something that only an Albanese Labor government will deliver. The opposition is clearly obsessed with standing in the way of market forces which are driving the transition to renewable energy. Coal-fired power plants are being shut down ahead of schedule, not by the government but by business.

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