Julian Leeser (Berowra, 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 actions the government is taking to ensure there's enough base-load dispatchable power to deliver affordable and reliable energy supply to Australian families and businesses? Is the minister aware of any threats to this approach?

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

I thank the member for Berowra for his question and know he is a hardworking member who supports the efforts on this side to ensure we get lower electricity prices and a more stable system. That includes enabling the gas suppliers to put more gas into the domestic market. We welcome the announcements from both Origin and Santos recently. We're doing work to rein in the power of the poles-and-wires companies. While the Labor Party wants to send it off to committee, we introduce legislation to abolish the limited merits review. And we have won significant concessions from retailers to offer Australian families a better deal.

I am asked: are there any threats to this approach? The biggest threat to power prices and to a more stable system come from Blackout Bill and Brownout Butler.

Mr Burke interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Minister for the Environment and Energy will resume his seat and we will go to the next question.

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer: The government's Finkel report said that implementing a clean energy target would put downward pressure on energy prices. At a time when wages are flatlining and the government continues to support cuts to penalty rates, why isn't the Treasurer fighting for a clean energy target—a target which would put downward pressure on cost of living and business costs?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike the member opposite, who's part of a party that has no plan to put downward pressure on—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Treasurer would just pause for a second. The member for Isaacs has been warned twice. He will leave under 94(a).

The member for Isaacs then left the chamber.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike the Labor Party, which has no policy to put downward pressure on rising energy prices, the Turnbull government does have a plan. We have plans, and those plans have the following elements.

First of all, we are securing Australian gas where we need it—at home to drive gas prices down—and have put the mechanisms in place to ensure that we can deliver on that. Secondly, we are calling the retail energy companies to account and ensuring that Australian consumers and Australian businesses get the best possible deal. We are doing that not just with the direct initiatives of the Prime Minister and the energy minister with those companies, which are already seeing Australians going and getting a better deal, as we know, right now. But we are doing it through the work of the ACCC, who are doing the inquiries on both gas and retail electricity. Thirdly, we have abolished the limited merits review process, which was putting upward pressure on energy prices. We are ensuring our regulations aren't driving up energy prices but, to the contrary, are putting downward pressures on those prices.

We are investing over $3 billion in lower-emissions technologies through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and, importantly, we are working to deliver a new investment framework which can guarantee the certainty necessary for both domestic and international investors to invest in future energy supply in this country. That means everything from keeping Liddell open, which those opposite want to close, to seeing the increased investment going to renewable technologies, into storage technologies and seeing that delivered on the ground.

This is a comprehensive plan which is designed to put downward pressure on rising energy prices. What those opposite propose is a 45 per cent emissions reduction target, which is a great, big, fat electricity tax, which is being sponsored by the Leader of the Opposition—the shiftiest Leader of the Opposition that the Australian people have known about for a long period of time. If he gets to slither into The Lodge, they will feel the effects! If he went to Hogwarts, he would have been in the house of Slytherin. The only difference is some in Slytherin came good in the end, unlike this Leader of the Opposition.