Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If anyone was inclined to believe this government had any intention of promoting the use of renewable energy then the terms of reference for the inquiry into the renewable energy target announced by the Minister for the Environment on 17 February—10 days ago—should disabuse them of that notion. A senior Liberal was more to the point when he recently told the ABC that the purpose of the inquiry was, 'Let's kill the RET.'

Given the extreme weather that we have been seeing—heatwaves, bushfires, drought—one would expect that any examination of the effect of the renewable energy target would see carbon dioxide emissions at the top of the list of the terms of reference. However, it is not there at all. We find, instead, is that the inquiry will focus almost entirely on the effect that the renewable energy target is having on power bills. Let me note that the Prime Minister pre-empted the findings of the inquiry by claiming that the RET scheme is significantly increasing electricity prices. He said in November last year:

… not only is the carbon tax adding about 9 per cent to everyone’s power bills, and we’re going to get rid of that as quickly as we can, renewable energy targets are also significantly driving up power prices right now.

This is a claim that we should examine. I invite the House and the Prime Minister to read the Australian Energy Market Commission's final report, for 2010-11 to 2013-14 on retail electricity price estimates. It stated, 'The impact of the carbon price at the national level is approximately six per cent in 2013-14.' The commission went on to state, explicitly, that the renewable energy target made a three per cent contribution to national price increases.

That report went on to detail the contributors to the national price increase in electricity for the years 2012-13 to 2013-14. The small-scale renewable energy scheme had a -0.8 per cent impact on prices. The large-scale renewable energy target had a 3.8 per cent impact on prices. The feed-in tariff and similar state based schemes had a 5.1 per cent impact on prices. The transmission system accounted for six per cent of the price increases. The retail side was 12 per cent of increases. The distribution side contributed 33.6 per cent and the wholesale side contributed 40.2 per cent. So, it is clear that the impact of the carbon price was minimal compared to the aggregate increase of 92 per cent for transmission, retail, distribution and wholesale costs. The real question is: if the government is genuinely concerned about the increasing price of electricity why has it set up an inquiry into the origins of the 3.8 per cent increase of the renewable energy target and overlooked the 90-plus per cent increase coming from other sources? By all means, let's have an inquiry into electricity prices but let's look at the real drivers: gold-plating of the poles and wires.

The Prime Minister is not alone in failing to read that report. There was a speech last year by the now Minister for the Environment, who said

According to the New South Wales IPART in the year just past we had an 18 per cent price rise in New South Wales electricity, of which nine per cent was the carbon tax—10 per cent on average around the country—and 0.3 per cent came from the renewable energy target ...

So, according to the environment minister, in June last year the renewable energy target added 0.3 per cent, or perhaps three per cent, to the price of electricity. Yet somehow, according to the Prime Minister in November, 'renewable energy targets are also significantly driving up power prices right now'. It is just nonsense.

If the claim that the renewable energy target is adding just 0.3 per cent or even three per cent to the price of power, what is the government's real justification for this inquiry? Indeed, there is research suggesting that renewable energy is helping to meet demand at peak times, such as during the recent heat waves, and therefore putting downward pressure on electricity prices. I congratulate the ACT government, which is far more forward looking, on the initiatives that it has just announced to lift the renewable energy target. It should be congratulated on its foresight and its commitment to giving us a liveable world in the future and not a world dominated by heat waves, droughts and bushfires. If the federal government wants to have an inquiry into electricity prices, I urge it to make sure that it is a serious inquiry that covers all the things that are impacting on electricity prices.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity in the adjournment debate to support the statement made by the Prime Minister's during his inaugural Closing the Gap address.

Aristotle is often quoted as saying, 'You can judge a nation by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens'. In Australia we do care for the most vulnerable in our society. We have a safety net for people who, through circumstance, are unable to care appropriately for themselves or their family without some support. With this in mind, it is deeply troubling that there are still people who live in poverty and violence in Australia. A disproportionately high number of these people come from Indigenous communities. They are our fellow Australians. In one of the wealthiest nations in the world there is a whole subset of society that lives in third-world conditions.

Much has been said about the supposed rancour and acrimony that exists between the two major parties. And, yes, at times parliament can descend into what appears to be nothing more than a slanging match across the dispatch box. However, one thing I never question is the sincerity of all members in this place when it comes to wanting to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous living standards. That is why the Prime Minister paid appropriate tribute to Kevin Rudd for his foresight with the Closing the Gap report. I would like to echo those sentiments.

There is no doubt at all that the current Prime Minister is as equally dedicated to improving Indigenous welfare as his predecessors. Beyond his many years working in remote Indigenous communities he wants to be known as a Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs. In so doing he has moved Indigenous affairs into the portfolio of Prime Minister and Cabinet as well as dedicating one week of the year, every year, for cabinet to work in Indigenous communities. The Prime Minister has also made it clear that he does not want our government to be measured by how many words we say on this topic but rather on the outcomes that we achieve together. That is why in Closing the Gap we will feature a seventh test to benchmark our results on: school attendance. As the Prime Minister said in his statement, 'No one ever received a good education by not going to school.' Education is the key to long-term, intergenerational improvement within Indigenous communities. After all, your chances of getting and holding a job are almost negligible without an education. And without a job, you cannot improve your economic circumstances.

I know that in my own electorate of Higgins there are a number of independent schools that now offer scholarships for Indigenous students. These students receive a top education throughout their secondary years and often go on to further their studies at university. Their job prospects are very strong. It is this value for the educational experience and culture of learning that we need to embed in Indigenous communities.

The Closing the Gap report does have some good news. The target of having 95 per cent of remote children enrolled for preschool has almost been met. In addition to this, the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is also on track. However, in other areas the progress has not been as successful. Life expectancy is still about a decade apart between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. There has been very little change over the years. This is despite the fact that there has been significantly increased funding over those years, particularly between 2009 and 2012, when there was a 56 per cent increase in spending. Indigenous employment has also gone backwards. This is another key challenge, one that was at the forefront of the Prime Minister's mind when he formed the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council led by Warren Mundine. There is still so much work to be done, and we have to be prepared to countenance some radical options.

I would like to conclude by revisiting part of my maiden speech, which I gave in this place just on four years ago. In that speech, I said:

Basic fairness and compassion mean a strong social safety net is essential, but I want as few people as possible to rely on it. In particular, we need to break the nexus of intergenerational welfare dependency, a problem tragically apparent in some of our Indigenous communities and, equally tragically, not confined to there. Our policies must encourage self-reliance and resilience.

This is what we will work towards in this parliament and the next, and we will be, rightly, judged on what we achieve.