Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton, I hope the people in your electorate around Dunedoo are recovering from the nasty fires that they have experienced in the last couple of weeks. We are all thinking about them.

But today I rise to take the opportunity to highlight one of the greatest battles our small business sector faces in order to survive, and that is over power supply and the price of the power. In order to run any business effectively, you must have confidence in your suppliers. Electricity is no different. Recent events have highlighted the need for a secure source and supply of electricity, regardless of the event. It is not good enough to have a power system that cannot react to circumstances and cannot service the customer.

The other aspect of power supply that is devastating local small businesses is price. Many small businesses are taking a beating from the excessive power price and the uncertainty of what the next bill will bring. Some are even working on getting off the grid with diesel generators. Dobinsons Spring & Suspension in Central Queensland are going back to generators, or at least looking at that proposal, because the price is fluctuating on the high side and they need a reliable, efficient price to carry on their business. It is more economical to supply one's own power instead of not knowing when it can or cannot come from the state. Where is the economy of scale in this 'all over the place' policy? The Queensland government continue to rip off the consumer, using them as a cash cow instead of using our high-quality coal power stations to subsidise business in Queensland. The current settings are anti-business and anti-jobs.

The existing power supply is a mess. It is unreliable, expensive and lacks future planning. Baseload electricity seems to be off the agenda. Coal-fired power stations have provided the bulk of our baseload power for decades. Existing coal-fired stations have a use-by-date, and that date is coming around very quickly. In most cases in Queensland, the power stations have only an extra 10 to 12 years of life before they are really obsolete. Capacity factors show that coal/gas is a good option. Wind is only effective for 45 per cent of the time on average, solar for 25 per cent and coal and gas for about 90 per cent. So there is a lot of wastage there on all sides.

We have a renewable target. Say it is 30 per cent by 2030, and Labor has a policy of 50 per cent by 2030. So what do we do for the other 50 per cent or 70 per cent, whatever the outcome is? Where does that come from? This is a question we must ask ourselves: where does the extra power come from if our current power stations are going to be rendered useless in another 10 to 12 years? The answer is we need ultra-supercritical coal-fired power stations—new ones. These take about five to seven years to construct. We need to act now so we are not left in the dark a la South Australia. We cannot afford to allow intermittent power sources, like wind and solar, to take over from coal-fired baseload power stations. Gladstone would make a perfect location for a new-generation power station.

Peter Gibbs runs the Biggenden abattoir in my electorate, possibly the largest employer in the North Burnett. He struggles. He has cut his power bill in half, but the price has gone up 70 per cent. Alan Dingle grows sugar cane in the north Bundaberg region in my electorate. His power bill has gone up 130 per cent since 2008. Most CQ farmers who are irrigating their crops cannot do so, in most cases, because of the high electricity prices. This must come to an end. We must give these farmers some certainty when it comes to producing crops in the future. It would appear that the state government is raiding the pockets of these irrigators and small businesses all over the state in order to pad its bottom line and employ more public servants in Brisbane. It is imperative that we, at all levels of government, do more to support our small industry people and the household electricity prices—they must be on a global, competitive basis.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:04