Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Energy: will the minister update the House on action the government is taking to strengthen energy security and maintain energy affordability? How would an alternative approach jeopardise energy security and affordability?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question and acknowledge her deep concern about the rising power prices affecting the 15,000 small businesses and many households across her electorate. She knows, as we know on this side of the House, that the Turnbull government is taking action on a number of fronts to put downward pressure on prices. We've reined in the power of the networks. We have called in the retailers and won significant commitments from them to provide more information, better information and more comparable information to consumers. We're investing in storage and in projects like Snowy 2.0. And, of course, we put in a place a mechanism to restrict gas exports.

But I'm asked if I am aware of any alternative approaches. We know that the Leader of the Opposition, in order to chase green votes, is prepared to sell out blue-collar workers in manufacturing sectors by closing down Australia's coal fired power stations even though coal provides a stable, reliable, cheap source of power. The Leader of the Opposition dons the high-vis vests and says at a doorstop that he supports coal fired power stations and it has a future here in Australia. But then the Labor Party in the Senate supports a motion with the Greens that coal has no long-term future in Australia. The Labor Party took to the election last year a platform which said that they will kick-start the closure of coal fired power stations. And the Leader of the Opposition is refusing to criticise the Andrews government even though it placed a 300 per cent increase on coal royalties in the Latrobe Valley and hastened the closure of Hazelwood.

So I was surprised to read in the Financial Review today a headline that said, 'The Labor Party rules out energy deals with the Greens.' I was surprised to read that out, because the reality is somewhat different. Just like Kevin Rudd told the Australian people before the election that he was a fiscal conservative, just like Julia Gillard told the Australian people there'd be no carbon tax under a government she led, the Leader of the Opposition says he supports coal fired power stations. But, given a half a chance in government, the Leader of the Opposition will join with the Greens, close down our coal fired power stations, increase power prices and create a less reliable system.

Only the coalition can be trusted with our energy future and only the coalition can bring down energy prices.