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

My question is again to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's previous answer about his latest energy policy. Why does the Energy Security Board's explainer document that was sent to state governments have a picture of a coal generator paying a renewable energy generator for carbon abatement? How is that not carbon trading?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The trading is of physical energy, physical electricity. The honourable member's utter inability to understand the way the energy market works is really staggering. The honourable member does not understand that the electricity market works with the trading of electricity. That will continue. Retailers will be able to trade, to ensure that they meet their obligations, whether on emissions or on reliability. Really, it's no wonder South Australia's in such bad shape in terms of energy with a Labor Party led by people like the member for Port Adelaide.

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

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the Minister update the House on the importance of energy reliability and affordability for hospitals across Australia, including those in my home state of South Australia?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey, who knows that one of the most critical elements in keeping the lights on in hospitals and in helping to create 371,500 jobs in Australia over the last year is affordable and reliable energy. Here is a very simple proposition: if you can't keep the lights on, you can't run a hospital, you can't run a Whyalla steelworks and you can't run a Port Pirie metalworks.

Affordable and reliable energy is critical to business and jobs, but it is also fundamental to our hospitals. We know this because we saw the Port Augusta Hospital lose power after the South Australian blackout last September, and we saw the Port Augusta Hospital lose power after its back-up failed. That meant a very simple thing. It meant that, in the member for Grey's electorate, there were risks to people who faced the need for dialysis and who needed critical care involving ventilators or humidicribs, things which are fundamental to patient safety and human safety. Running a hospital requires a stable electricity supply.

Against that background, it's almost impossible to imagine that somebody would deliberately blow up a power station in Port Augusta. But Labor deliberately blew up the Port Augusta power station.

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

The minister knows the rules on props.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They blew it up. Not just figuratively but literally they blew up the Port Augusta power station. That is Labor's approach to electricity and power generation in this country. They delighted in the fact, they revelled in the fact, they cherished the fact that they figuratively and literally blew up a power station. The people of Port Augusta paid that price in two ways. They paid that price through the hip pocket from the skyrocketing prices in South Australia, but they also paid for it through the loss of stability and security.

We are taking a different approach. We have not only abolished the carbon tax; we have taken steps to abolish the limited merits review. But now the Prime Minister has put forward the National Energy Guarantee. That's both about dealing with price but, in particular, about dealing with stability. This is about ensuring that never again should the people of Port Augusta face a situation where they don't have the security that their hospital will be able to continue providing essential services. What Labor wants in the end is the alternative. They want to drive up electricity prices. They want to see a $66 billion increase in the cost of electricity, and they don't care that it puts at risk electricity stability and security. If you don't have electricity stability and security, you can't keep the lights on and you can't keep the hospitals running. (Time expired)

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

My question is again to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister and the energy minister have apparently assured their party room that they will not put a price on carbon or allow carbon trading, but their latest energy policy certainly seems to put a price on carbon and involve carbon trading. Given it looks like a goat, walks like a goat and bleats like a goat, will the Prime Minister now accept the reality of his own policy or will he continue to pay homage to the volcano gods on his backbench?

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

For all those people listening at home that are struggling with their power bills, particularly in South Australia—the pensioners, the workers at the steelworks at Whyalla, those at the Port Pirie smelter, those at Adelaide Brighton in the member's own electorate of Port Adelaide—what do you think they're thinking about the political games of those opposite? What do you think they're thinking? Do you think the fact that those opposite are belittling a saving of $115 a year reflects badly on them, particularly because when they were last in office power bills went up by 100 per cent? We had the dirty dozen of policies. We had hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the small business sector, we had the dreaded $15 billion carbon tax, we had that great democratic experiment the citizens assembly, we had the cash for clunkers, we had the pink batts, we had the ETS, we had the CPRS, we had the EIS. We had every policy under the sun!

Now the Labor Party has been presented with what they have asked for: an opportunity for bipartisanship based on expert advice. As I said to the House, this has received widespread support from groups like ACCI, which says, 'This policy ticks the boxes of lower prices, increased reliability and meeting our international target.' The Australian Industry Group, representing more than a million employees, said, 'The plan gives the electricity sector a great deal of flexibility and it gives welcome recognition of the imperative of maintaining trade competitiveness for emissions-intensive industries.' The National Irrigators Council, in all the regional areas across the country, has said, 'This package is welcome.' Manufacturing Australia said they've welcomed the government's new energy plan. APPEA, who represent the gas companies, said, 'This National Energy Guarantee strengthens reliability.' What about Energy Consumers Australia? I thought those opposite worried about consumers. It said, 'This policy is welcome because it integrates the need for reliable power and emissions reduction in the electricity sector, at least cost for consumers.' PwC said, 'It provides a long-awaited certainty, reliability and affordability medicine we have been looking for to treat the ills of our energy market.' This is why this policy, put forward by the experts, is deserving of bipartisan support. If you don't support it, we will, because we believe in lower power prices and a more reliable system.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Will the minister update the House on the importance of reliable, affordable energy for our red meat export industry? Are there any threats to this important export industry?

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. Of course, her electorate represents a major centre for the production and processing of red meat. As a Queenslander, I'm very pleased, like her, to say that Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia. Whether it's the farms of the Fitzroy Plains through to the coolrooms of the meat plants in Rocky, all of them rely on affordable, reliable power. The member for Capricornia has been a very strong advocate for the people of Capricornia, not only with respect to the export of red meat but also with respect to the coalition government's strong agenda when it comes to free trade agreements.

The member for Capricornia, like me, was at the launch of the Red Meat Advisory Council's 2017 State of the industry report. This report talks about the great success they've had at RMAC in exporting Australian red meat, Australian beef. That's able to be secured thanks to the free trade agreements that we've put in place and also by making sure we have kept our eye very firmly on what it takes to make Australian exporters competitive—that is, reliable and affordable energy. I note, for example, that the CEO of the meat processor JBS, which employs around 12,000 people across five states, said, 'I welcome the announcement of the government's National Energy Guarantee that, as a policy, offers a solution to lower the costs of energy, deliver reliability and underpin a competitive Australian manufacturing sector.' So there you hear it from someone who is at the epicentre of making sure our red meat exports go well and making sure we are able to export red meat, which drives economic growth and jobs in Australia. That's the reason we see some 371,500 more Australians in jobs today. It is as a consequence of our trade policies and as a consequence of our steady gaze on making sure we get the big calls right on energy policy. The simple fact is that when it comes to the opposition they get the big calls wrong. They are getting it wrong on energy policy. They sure as hell get it wrong when it comes to trade policy.

We don't forget—and I know the people of Capricornia don't forget—Labor's call when it came to red meat exports and live cattle exports. What did they do for the people of Capricornia? They shut down the trade overnight. What did they do to our bilateral relationship with Indonesia? They junked it. The fact is that the coalition is going to provide reliable, affordable energy. The coalition is going to provide the right economic conditions for 371,000 more Australians to have jobs, as a result of our free trade deals, and only the coalition will deliver the policy certainty to make sure that Australians have jobs into the future and have reliable and affordable energy.