Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, 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 the government's action to guarantee affordable and reliable energy for hardworking Australians and businesses, including in my home state of Queensland? And how does this compare with alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Fairfax for his question. He comes from the great state of Queensland. But it's not a great state for energy policy because, as a result of the actions of the Labor state government, the Palaszczuk government, the green light has been given the to the government-owned generators to game the system and, as a result, Queenslanders have paid on average 30 per cent more for their wholesale electricity prices in the first five months of this year than the other states in the National Electricity Market. And it's been left to the Turnbull government to do the heavy lifting on energy policy.

Through the National Energy Guarantee, we have delivered a credible, workable, practical policy that will deliver more reliable and affordable power—no subsidies, no taxes, no trading schemes—and it's been broadly welcomed by business, big and small, as being a way forward for this country. It builds on the work that we've done in other areas of energy policy, such as: passing legislation just a couple of weeks ago to stop the gaming by the networks of the poles and wires; the work that we've done with the retailers to ensure that hundreds of thousands of Australians save hundreds of dollars a year on their retail bill; and the work that we've done with the gas companies. As a result of the Prime Minister's intervention, we will not see a shortfall in the domestic market, as was expected for 2018 and 2019.

I can inform the House today that AP LNG have announced that they will provide 41 additional petajoules to the domestic market starting from next week. That's the equivalent of enough gas to power two million homes across New South Wales, an enormous amount of extra gas that has been delivered as a result of the Turnbull government's intervention.

It's been days since we've had a question from those opposite on energy. They've gone silent. The member for Port Adelaide has turned into the Marcel Marceau of Australian politics. The Leader of the Opposition said that when it comes to energy policy, time for talk is over. I didn't know that he'd take his own advice, the reason being that he knows that under the Labor Party's policy, Australian households will be $300 a year worse off. Shame on the Labor Party. Shame on the Labor Party for their energy policy! It's time they realise that the way forward for this country to get reliable and affordable power is to listen to the experts, as they asked us to do, and to give us a bipartisan consensus to ensure that the National Energy Guarantee becomes a reality. It's time the Labor Party got on board.