David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the energy costs that Australians are facing: whether you're an individual family; a pensioner, like many of the people in my electorate; or a small or very large business—a supermarket, a bakery or a coffee shop—every industry and every job in this country relies on electricity. The reason they're all screaming is because the electricity dilemma is policy driven.

The other side is trying to make out that it's just because of Ukraine's war with Russia and the lack of oil and gas as a result of Russia and Nord Stream being taken out. It goes far deeper than that. The reality is that the policies which the other side announced well and truly before this election, and are now starting to execute, will send this country to the wall. We have seen 56 per cent increases in the cost of electricity, sure, but some of my factories and businesses have seen 320 per cent increases put to them recently.

Why is the electricity market so expensive? It's because of the national electricity market rules and regulations; all the hidden costs and subsidies; and the regulatory restrictions on trade. These things mean that a lot of the electricity produced isn't paid for because of the kilowatts that are delivered, it's because of all the other restrictions put on the baseload generators. For years, these worked efficiently when they were operating at 100 per cent capacity. But regulations generated by the Renewable Energy Target and the national electricity market rules mean that they've been told to turn off when it happens to be a sunny day or a windy day. These plants aren't designed to do that; to be able to ramp up and to ramp down is only a facility in very modern power plants. The member for Hunter would understand all this: that's why your cheap electricity has gone out. The renewable energy industry has convinced government after government to subsidise it through restrictive regulations and renewable energy certificates.

No wonder they want net zero—it means permanent renewable energy certificates. It ends up that consumers pay that price; that doesn't appear in the market. But it means they get a second pay day whenever they manage to generate. They get paid for their kilowatts when it happens to be a nice day—not cloudy, not raining and not like La Nina weather patterns, where it's cloudy, rainy and wet for weeks on end. So no wonder the bankers are falling over themselves. It's a real scam. It's the biggest bloody Ponzi scheme—excuse me, Madam Speaker—

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