Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It was at about this time last year, in December, in the lead-up to Christmas, that we had the now Prime Minister and the now minister do the big reveal to the Australian people about Labor's energy policy in government. What they promised ahead of Christmas last year was a reduction in household power bills of $275. But there was a catch to that: you had to vote for the Labor Party. If the Labor Party were to come to power, they would deliver a reduction in household power bills of $275. It's no surprise, therefore, that, here we are, one year later, in the lead-up to Christmas—again, it is December—and they have a big, grand announcement: yes, they're going to reduce your power bills again. The difference is that the Australian people now know that this government is inept and is incapable of delivering on its promise of lower power bills.

The opposition will absolutely disassociate itself from the energy plan that Labor seeks to enshrine in law today with the Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022. We will only stand by the households of Australia and the businesses of Australia. We have done that in government. We've done that in opposition.

What the government seeks to do today in this plan is to put in law a justification for increasing household power bills. By their own numbers, the plan behind this legislation will increase power bills for Australian households by up to $700 by next financial year. Be very clear about this: behind all of their sales messaging, the numbers they themselves produce say that this plan will increase Australian household power bills by up to $700. That's the substance of what they propose. Now, add that to the promise of a $275 reduction and you have a nearly $1,000 difference between what the Australian people expected from this Labor government and what, in fact, they are delivering. Australian households will be nearly $1,000 worse off because of this government and their legislation today.

Now, if we stick to facts, they know very well that on this side of the House, the coalition side, prices came down. In the last term of government alone, household prices came down by eight per cent. For businesses it was 10 per cent. For industry it was 12 per cent. And what's happening under the Labor Party, this inept party that pretends the invasion of Ukraine happened only under their watch? Prices are going up. And what's their plan moving forward? Does any Labor Party MP really believe power prices are coming down? I'm looking now at the minister. Minister, are power prices coming down? I can't hear you, Minister. You know the truth. Your plan is going to see household power bills go up by nearly $800—at least $700—by the next financial year. This is your plan. We disassociate ourselves from it.

It's also a plan that seeks to kill off an Australian industry, the gas industry—an industry one of whose major projects, the Kurri Kurri project, this minister decided to call BS. The minister is trying to take gas away from that project. This is a government that has taken out of its budget $50 million for exploration for gas and another $50 million for pipeline infrastructure for gas. It is a parliament that's discrediting carbon capture and storage that would assist gas. It is a government that has taken gas out of the capacity mechanism. This is a government that is on the attack against the very transitional fuel that the ACCC says we need more of, the very fuel that the Energy Security Board says we need more of, the very fuel of which the market operator says: 'It's the only way to get to net zero. You need it.' But they're trying to kill it off because they have an ideological zeal to kill off this industry, and they do so with the greatest overreach of government power we have seen.

This is all about ensuring that the government themselves can intervene in a marketplace and can say exactly who should trade with whom. They will have the ability to tell one company to turn down its energy to save energy, because they know that by putting a price cap on this they are going to decrease supply and increase demand, and their way of solving that problem is a mandatory code that would give them the power to instruct an industry at the micro level. It sets a dangerous precedent for what is otherwise a liberal democracy.

See this speech in context