Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Twenty-two. The members in the chamber seem surprised. Yes, I can confirm they had 22 separate energy policies but couldn't land one of them, and the person who was most responsible for destroying each and every one of those 22 energy policies was the member for Hume. We're not surprised that the person who put so much energy into destroying energy policies of his own party when they were in government has an aversion to energy policy, and it's not surprising to us that he wants to use this opportunity to destroy a 23rd energy policy, one that might just work. But all good members of this House, and that is the majority of members of this House, can see through it. Not satisfied with wrecking their own policy, he wants to do the same thing here. We are calling him out on it. It is time that we got energy policy back on track in this country. Under the watch of the member for Hume we saw, at his hand, four gigawatts of dispatchable energy leave the Australian east coast generation system. Only one gigawatt of energy returned to that system. Is there any wonder we are having problems with energy generation supply, and is there any wonder that power bills are going up in this country? It is the direct result of the policies championed by the member for Hume. He was at it for nine years when in government, and now he's at it again. He hasn't learned a thing.

We have a policy for dealing with every issue, and if I could sum our policy up, it is about ensuring that we have reliable, sustainable and affordable energy—the exact opposite to the policy direction of the former government. Yes, it's about Rewiring the Nation. Yes, it's about ensuring that we have more energy generation and that we are able to connect the place where the energy is being generated to the place where it's being used, by rebuilding the energy transmission system.

In the member for Hume's second-reading amendment he claims that this is a secret provision, and he raised in his speech on the second-reading amendment significant concerns about the projects that are going to be funded under the new funding arrangements. One of the issues he raised concerns about is the Marinus Link, the link that will connect the new Battery of the Nation project in Tasmania, generating new electricity capacity, from Tasmania to the mainland, providing a new source of energy and electricity generation, particularly for the east coast of Australia and for South Australia. You've got to ask yourself who could be against that. Who could be against a project that is going to connect a new source of generating clean energy in Tasmania across the Bass Strait and into the east coast energy generation market? Apparently the member for Hume, post election, is opposed to that project. Apparently, the member for Hume, after the election, has significant problems with the government implementing its election commitments to set up the Rewiring the Nation program and to ensure that we can invest in projects such as the Marinus Link. I say 'post election' because he had something to very different to say before the election. I'm reading from a press release, dated 3 April 2022, and published by no less than Angus Taylor MP, the member for Hume, wherein he boasts that a re-elected Morrison government will invest in none other than the Marinus Link Battery of the Nation program. The press release says the 'Marinus Link and Battery of the Nation are true nation building projects'. He waxes on over four complete pages to extol the virtues of the Marinus Link, and this is in his press release dated 3 April 2022. Apparently, post election, when this project has funding dedicated to it, and was facilitated by the bill before the House, it's somehow not only wrong but also secretive and something that he no longer supports. I invite the member for Hume to come back into the House and explain to the people here why he has had this about-face on this important project.

There's no about-face on our part. We have one policy, and that policy is to deliver cheaper, more sustainable, more reliable energy for the people of Australia, and far from playing politics on it and far from having 22 policies over nine years, we'll have one policy and we'll implement it. This bill before the House, particularly schedule 8, is a critical part of that.

In closing, I encourage members opposite, when they are asked to come in here and speak on a Treasury law amendment bill, and they are given a set of speaking notes from the shadow Treasurer, the member for Hume—when they are sent in here to read something that he's asked them to read, the default position is: just say no, because it's probably wrong. This is in black and white, in his second reading amendment to the bill before the House, which we will be opposing. If you want to protect your reputation and your standing in this place over many years, and if the member for Hume recommends that you come in here and say something, the default position is: just do the opposite. I commend the bill to the House.

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