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

I move:

That this House condemns the Leader of the Opposition for deliberately misleading the Australian public on power prices.

Let's start with the claim. On Tuesday, the Leader of the Opposition stated, 'The research shows that the average power bills for a Sydney household have gone up by nearly $1,000.' On the same day in parliament he said to the Prime Minister:

What about the $1,000 extra that Sydney householders are paying on his watch?

It was a claim he repeated in the House yesterday. Yesterday his shadow spokesman on energy, the member for Port Adelaide, said in the House:

Since this government came into office power bills have gone up by $1,000 for the average Sydney household. That figure is based on data from the government's own Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission, reported in The Australian newspaper.

But The Australian newspaper never reported such a figure. It was concocted by the Labor Party and the Leader of the Opposition and was designed to mislead the Australian people. And again Labor members followed their Leader of the Opposition, repeating this $1,000 false claim. The member for Parramatta, the member for Shortland, the member for Kingsford Smith, the member for Lindsay, the member for Werriwa, the member for Wills, the member for Cunningham, the member for Hunter and the member for Blaxland all repeated this false claim.

And then Labor's false claim was repeated and used in the media. Last night, in Andrew Probyn's package on the ABC News, this $1,000 false claim was repeated to hundreds of thousands of Australians. But let me tell the House that the Leader of the Opposition's $1,000 claim for an electricity price increase for the average Sydney household is false, is dishonest and is designed to deliberately mislead the Australian people. It has wrongly asserted data from Australia's independent Australian Energy Regulator and was designed to deceive the Australian people.

This is what the independent Australian Energy Regulator has said in response to the claims from those opposite: '

The Australian Energy Regulator has not published any data outlining the price increases claimed in the article. The price increases in the article are inconsistent with the data published by the Australian Energy Regulator.'

This data suggests that prices have gone down in Sydney by 2.3 per cent from the end of 2013 to July 2017. I table the advice from the Australian Energy Regulator. Similarly, the independent Australian Energy Market Commission has stated in response to these claims: 'The Australian Energy Market Commission's figures cannot be the basis of the estimates of price increases published in The Australian article on 10 July 2017.' I table the advice from the Australian Energy Market Commission, which conflicts with the claims made by those opposite.

There we have it in black and white. The Leader of the Opposition, his energy spokesman and a host of frontbench and backbench colleagues have used the good names of the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission, attributing to them data that never existed while cooking up on that side of the House a fake figure of a $1,000 increase in Sydney households designed to mislead the Australian people. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to come clean, to apologise to the Australian people and to come into this House and correct the record.

We have seen this all before, because the Leader of the Opposition has a pathological pattern of behaviour to deceive, to falsify and to mislead the Australian people. The Leader of the Opposition has a pathological pattern of behaviour to deceive, to falsify and to mislead the Australian people. It goes to the question of integrity, because the Leader of the Opposition is not fit to be Prime Minister of this country. He's not fit to be Prime Minister of the country. We all know about 'Mediscare'. Those opposite were prepared to deceive millions of Australian pensioners and the most vulnerable in our society with a lie, with a mistruth, with a false claim. If we hadn't exposed this $1,000 false claim from the Leader of the Opposition—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind the member for Shortland that he's not in his seat. You're not in your seat. Nor is the member for Lyons or the member for Cowan.

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

who would know that millions of Australians may have gotten a text message attributed to the Australian Energy Regulator? It's just like what they did with the 'Mediscare' campaign.

The Leader of the Opposition's bad behaviour is not confined to 'Mediscare'. What about his bad behaviour with the workers of Clean Event? As a union boss, he sold out the workers to line the pockets of the unions. What about his efforts in getting $100,000 from the good workers of the unions and giving it to GetUp!? Money that came from the coal workers was given to GetUp! to close coal-fired power stations—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will resume his seat. I call the Manager of Opposition Business.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will just make a point of order briefly, if I may. This particular resolution, a resolution on notice condemning a member of parliament by direct resolution and claiming deliberately misleading, is a resolution rarely moved. When it's moved, the relevance rules are relatively strict. The minister has now strayed a long way from the subject of the motion.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Manager of Opposition Business. I call the minister. I have allowed him to continue.

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

The Leader of the Opposition has a pathological pattern of behaviour to deceive, to falsify and to mislead the Australian people.

We know that he has concocted this $1,000 figure, he has taken the good name of the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission and he has got the Labor members opposite to repeat this false claim and to mislead the Australian people. On the issue of rising energy prices, the public concern is genuine, but the Leader of the Opposition's concern is not genuine. When we came to government at the end of 2013, we inherited a mess. We inherited electricity prices that had increased by more than 100 per cent, and they had actually increased by more than that in Sydney. We immediately took action to abolish the carbon tax, and those opposite tried three times to stop us. But when the carbon tax was abolished, we saw the biggest single drop ever recorded, and we have the ACCC saying that Australian householders were, overall, $550 better off.

When we came to government, as I said to the House yesterday, the Australian Energy Regulator in their State of the energy market report shows that electricity bills for an average household in Sydney have varied from increasing by about $1 to falling by $473 in accordance with the latest data in May. Take, for example, Ausgrid: in 2013, their customers saw a 3.9 per cent increase; in 2014, they saw a 5.5 per cent decrease; in 2015, they saw a 6.6 per cent decrease; and, in 2016, they saw a 9.1 per cent increase. We know that Australian households are doing it tough. On 1 July this year, AGL increased average Sydney household bills by $296, Origin increased bills by $310 and EnergyAustralia increased bills by $320. The combined effect of these changes on the average Sydney household bill, since we came to office, means that the price for an average Sydney household varies from increasing by $321 to decreasing by $177. This is nowhere even close to the Labor Party's claim: a fabrication of $1,000.

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind the member for Lyons that he is out of his seat.

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

I table the AER's documentation indicating those numbers. We have taken action on a number of fronts to relieve the pressure on household power bills. The Prime Minister has taken action to provide more gas into the domestic market, action to rein in the power of the networks, action to get better deals for the retailers and action to keep existing coal-fired power stations going. These are all actions of a responsible government focused on affordable, reliable power. This contrasts with those opposite with a Leader of the Opposition who's not fit for government, a Leader of the Opposition who has misappropriated the good names of the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission and a Leader of the Opposition who has come into this place and made up a figure—a false figure—of a thousand-dollar increase for average household power prices. The member for Port Adelaide should be ashamed of himself because he has made up a number and misled the House. The Labor Party has misled the House. The Labor Party has not produced one valid document to assert its statement is correct.

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Hunter! The member for Hunter is defying the chair. Order!

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

I will end where I started. The Leader of the Opposition has concocted the number of a thousand-dollar increase. He has used the good name of the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Commission. There is now documentation on the record contradicting and conflicting with the claims made by the Labor Party. Only this side of the House is focused on a more affordable and reliable system, and only the Leader of the Opposition does not have the courage or the conviction to come into this House, to be honest with the Australian people, to correct the record and to explain why he made up this false figure to mislead and deceive the Australian people.

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Irons, you can't imagine how pleased I am to take this debate, because they have got to be kidding! The last time we had overreach like this was when John Howard said that under Work Choices workers had never had it better. Remember that? Billboard after billboard destroyed his government because of that arrogance, that sense of being so out of touch that the government does not understand what is happening in households across the country. This motion exemplifies how arrogant and out of touch this government is.

The Minister for the Environment and Energy came into the parliament yesterday afternoon and effectively said to the 2½ million Sydney households, 'You've never had it so good.' He came into this House and said to 2½ million Sydney households that under the coalition government power prices have decreased by as much as $473. This minister said that $473 is the cash that Sydney households have in their pockets because of the cuts in their power bills under this government. Sydney households should be grateful for the bountiful sums that have flowed their way from reduced power bills under this minister and his predecessor. He said that with a straight face.

I do admit that the minister did concede that some Sydney households had experienced an increase in their power bills—an increase of $1. He said $1, not $1 per week but $1 per year over the whole of the long four years of this shocking government.

The member for Lindsay gave me a good suggestion earlier today. She said: 'Rather than have this debate in the rarefied atmosphere of Canberra, why don't you'—the minister—'join me in Penrith and have this debate? You can hear from Sydney households how grateful they are for the extra $473 that you say they have in reduced power bills. They'll be throwing rose petals your way, in your path, as you steam into Penrith to gracefully tell them how they've got reduced power bills.' I will tell you this: the member for Lindsay and other representatives of Sydney households on this side of parliament know what's happening in the real world of Sydney power bills. They know that under this government they are going up and up and up. Last year alone, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, they went up by $200 a year on average. As the minister belatedly admits, Sydney households are experiencing power bill increases this year of around 20 per cent. News.com.au says that, on average, for a Sydney household it is about $600 a year—but the minister didn't refer to that yesterday.

This is a government that is so out of touch that it thinks that Sydney households are experiencing a bounty of reduced power bills that are nothing but a fantasy. Perhaps that's why this minister for energy is supporting his Treasurer in cutting the energy supplement to 400,000 age pensioners, to 108,000 disability support pensioners, to 105,000 carers, to single parents and to other families on income support, because apparently their power bills are going down. They don't need the $550 energy supplement paid to the most vulnerable households in our community.

And it's not just households, because business after business has been walking the halls of this parliament over the last fortnight and talking about their energy price rises across the country, including in New South Wales. And we know the figures they're quoting: they're talking to the media and they're talking to members on this side about 70 per cent, 80 per cent, 90 per cent and even 100 per cent increases in their power contracts in New South Wales—all because of this government's stunning underperformance on energy policy.

Now, the reasons for this are very clear. Under this government, 4,000 megawatts of dispatchable power have been taken out of the system. Seven coal-fired power stations, equivalent to powering six million households, have been taken out of the system. I'd love the minister to get up and tell us how many megawatts of dispatchable power have been built in the more than four years of this government, because it's zero. It's absolutely zero! We had the Prime Minister boast about the 2,900 megawatts of gas-fired generation installed in the last decade. He didn't say it was all under the last Labor government, and that not a single megawatt of dispatchable power has been built in the long four years of this government.

But we also know that it's not just the Turnbull government that's let Sydney households down. We saw the ACCC in the paper again this morning, complaining about the Liberal state government's botched privatisation of New South Wales power generation, pushing power prices up for Sydney households, which are already having to suffer at the hands of this incompetent, out-of-touch government.

This government has plunged this country into the deepest energy crisis in living memory. To the minister, I say: power prices are not going down. They are not going down; they are going up and up and up under this government. For the first time in living memory, two-thirds of the nation is at risk of blackouts in coming summers because this government has built no dispatchable power generation, while 4,000 megawatts of dispatchable power has left the system on this government's watch.

It's not just dispatchable power and it's not just power prices: pollution is going up. One in three renewable energy jobs has been lost under this minister and under this government, because of their attacks on renewable energy. One in three jobs! Thousands of workers in renewable energy have lost their jobs because of this government's ideological attacks. And it's all the more unforgiveable because they actually have a blueprint to get the nation out of this deep hole. They have a blueprint to get the nation out of this hole: it's called the Finkel report, a report commissioned by the government itself from the Chief Scientist of Australia that recommends the clearest possible way forward. The clearest possible way forward is a clean energy target, one that's got the support of business and the support of state governments. The opposition has said that we'll constructively engage with them. But why isn't the clean energy target progressing? I wonder why the clean energy target is not progressing? Because two years ago we changed the Prime Minister, but we didn't actually change who runs this show. The member for Warringah runs this show! The member for Hughes has a pretty significant influence as well but is second to the member for Warringah, who really runs this show.

We've got article, after article, after article laying bare all the internal divisions of this sad and sorry government.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order! Order! I'll ask the member to resume his seat. I'll just remind all members, particularly the member for Hunter—who has interjected the whole way through—that if you want to come to the dispatch box, you'll get your turn. I remind all members that if they're out of their seats, to cease their interjections.

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday we got 'Turnbull retreats on clean energy'. He said this was the way forward, but no, he can't get his party room to do it. We saw yesterday, 'Abbott fuels push from backbench against clean target', proving again that you may have changed the Prime Minister two years ago but you didn't change who runs the show; you didn't change who's got a veto over policy, including climate and energy policy. It's still the member for Warringah who runs this show!

'Party games', yesterday—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Corangamite on a point of order.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I would ask the member to direct his comments through the chair. Thank you.

Honourable members interjecting—

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order! I'm sure the shadow minister is aware of that.

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that, Deputy Speaker. There are no limits to this government's arrogance. There are no limits to how out of touch this government and all on its backbench are. The Australian people know with power prices; they know that under this government they're going up and up. They know their wages are flat. They know that the Prime Minister is cutting the energy supplement. They know the government is giving tax cuts to millionaires and tax cuts to big business. They know that the government is making their kids pay more to go to university. I tell you what: they'll find this government out.

As an amendment to the proposition, I move:

That all words after "condemns" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: "the Prime Minister for being so out of touch that his Government is telling the average Sydney household that since this Government was elected in 2013, their power bills have only gone up by $1 or gone down by more than $470 a year".

(Time expired)

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder? I call the member for Watson.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment, and, if the government think this debate's going well for them, they'll keep it going.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the question be now put.

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

The question is that that motion be put.

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

The question is that the amendment moved by the member for Port Adelaide be agreed to.

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

The question now is that the motion moved by the minister be agreed to.