Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As hardworking Australians and those who are retired watch the debate on energy in this place, they will be remembering one thing more than any other—that is, the member for Warringah's pre-2013-election promise to cut our electricity bills by $550 every year. Yet many, many Australians are paying $1,000 extra per year since this government came to office. The Abbott-Turnbull government are now in their fifth year in office; energy prices continue to rise, and energy security continues to fall. Australians are wondering whether they're going to be able to keep the lights on this coming summer. You know, the member for New England mystically claims credit for the total value of our farm output, but of course, energy prices and energy insecurity are all our fault. Those opposite have no shame. We have an immediate energy crisis. Summer is coming. Six months ago, Tomago Aluminium was forced to go offline. A little more than six days ago, the Prime Minister decided he might do something about it. What is his mystical plan to do something about it, in five years time? Prime Minister, the crisis is here, right now. (Time expired)

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would draw issue with some of the conclusions the member for Hunter was reaching there. It is interesting we are talking about energy and electricity. I have been reading through the Finkel report. There are a couple of specific recommendations that Mr Finkel makes that have great import on South Australia: firstly, the security obligation for new generators. Regional systems need to provide for inertia levels. For a reliability obligation, new generators need to ensure they can supply electricity when needed for the duration and the capacity nominated by the National Electricity Market for each region. This is very important in South Australia, where in fact the South Australian government have vigorously pursued renewable electricity to the point where it has become totally unreliable and they continue to do that. They continue to license and approve the building of new wind farms and new solar facilities without actually insisting on storage and dispatchability. Every new renewable project that comes on stream without storage is actually undermining the economic case for the baseload generators that are so important in the system. I have been saying for some time: no more renewable without storage—renewable, yes, but without storage, no. (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's time the Prime Minister stopped blaming everyone else and accepted the fact that as the leader of the government he is responsible for the problem that we have with energy prices. Remember when this government came into power five years ago and they promised that power prices would go down? What happened? They went up. Average prices in Melbourne are $700 dearer than they were in 2013. The National Party, the Canberra National Party, sit here and want to attack farmers who want to protect their land from fracking. They sit here and say, 'Oh, coal is the future. Coal is the future.' I look forward to the member for Grey coming in here and saying, 'Gee, the Finkel report says, "No, it's not."'

What we actually find is that the price for coal is low because you never, ever include the cost to the environment. You never, ever include the longevity that it takes to clean up after it's been done. We've seen 4,000 megawatts of power lost under this lot while they were sleeping, first with Prime Minister Abbott and then with Prime Minister Turnbull. Both have sat here and said, 'It's not our fault. We are just the leaders of the government.' We asked them, 'Why don't you pull the gas trigger? Why don't you do that?' They know that they can't because the Deputy Prime Minister is in the High Court because he doesn't even know if he is an Australian! He doesn't even know if he is legally allowed to be in here. It's time that we got a Prime Minister in this country who stood up for Australia and no more years of 'mendacious Mal' and this government's false claims.