Nicolle Flint (Boothby, 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 action the government is taking to strengthen the electricity market and reduce pressure on power prices so that hardworking Australian families and businesses can get ahead? What are the risks with alternative approaches?

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

I thank the honourable member for Boothby for her question. I know that she is focused on delivering lower power prices for households and businesses across her electorate, including Patritti Wines in Dover Gardens, which is a fourth-generation family-owned business which employs around 30 people. The members on this side of the House from South Australia, including from Barker, Sturt and Grey, know that in South Australia, because of the faults of the Weatherill government, on average power prices are 20 per cent more than across the rest of the country.

That is why we have taken action to intervene in the gas market, and the ACCC has reported that prices have come down by up to 50 per cent. That is why we have passed legislation to abolish the limited merits review to stop the gaming of the system by the networks. That is why we've reached a deal with the retailers to get a better deal for millions of Australians on their power bills. That's why we're investing in storage, in Snowy 2.0, and Cultana in the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia. That's why we have accepted the recommendation of the independent experts on the National Energy Guarantee, which, compared to the Labor Party's emissions intensity scheme, will see the average Australian household $300 a year better off.

I'm asked: am I aware of any alternative approaches? I know that the member for Port Adelaide has been a bit preoccupied as of late—too busy with his backroom buffoonery. He knows that, when the Labor Party was last in office, power prices went up 100 per cent. He knows that the Labor Party is proposing a new tax on electricity, with the emissions intensity scheme, that the Labor Party has a reckless 50 per cent renewable energy target and that the Labor Party is proposing cutting emissions across the economy by 45 per cent but has no plan and no detail. No wonder the Business Council of Australia has called their proposal 'risky and unnecessary'. But most of all, the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party want to take the disaster and the dangerous experiment of South Australia national. That is what the Labor Party want to do. It hasn't learnt about the mistakes of Labor governments in South Australia, and now in Victoria. Only the coalition, with its National Energy Guarantee, with its investments in storage, with its deal with the retailers and with its intervention in the gas markets can deliver more affordable and reliable power for all Australians.