John Alexander (Bennelong, 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 how the government's action to create an affordable and reliable energy system is benefiting families and business across the nation, including in my electorate of Bennelong? Is the minister aware of any 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 his question. After his straight-sets victory and a few double faults from those opposite, he is the champion of Bennelong! He is the people's champion of Bennelong. The people of Epping, Putney and Ryde know that he is fighting hard for their best interests. He is fighting hard to drive their power bills lower.

Mr Alexander strongly supports the Turnbull government's reforms. He knows that businesses we have visited in his electorate, like Cafe Neon and Pryde Meats, with the Turnbull government's energy reforms, will be able to invest more money in jobs in their community. That means more butchers, more baristas, more bookkeepers—more jobs for the people of Bennelong.

The reforms that we are driving include the National Energy Guarantee, recommended by the experts. Australian households and families will be $300 a year better off under the National Energy Guarantee than under the Labor Party. Our intervention in the gas market, according to the ACCC, has seen prices come down by up to 50 per cent. Our better deal with the retailers will save hundreds of dollars for Australian families. The passage of legislation to abolish the limited merits review, if it had been allowed by the Labor Party, would have saved Australians $6.5 billion on their power bills.

I'm asked: are there any alternative approaches? We know the Labor Party is the party of higher power bills. When they were last in office, power prices doubled, and now the Labor Party and the member for Port Adelaide are afraid to ask a question on energy policy. It's been 117 days without a question on energy policy, and do you know why? Because the Leader of the Opposition doesn't stand for anything. He goes to the Latrobe Valley and tells the workers that coal has a future in Australia. Then in this parliament he supports motions that say coal has no future in Australia. He says he wants to lower people's power bills, but he has a reckless 50 per cent Renewable Energy Target which will only send prices higher and repeat the experiment of South Australia.

He says he wants a national solution and a bipartisan approach, but, when we present the National Energy Guarantee from the experts, he rejects it because of his ideological approach. So, when it comes to energy policy, which is now dictated by the far Left of the Labor Party, don't look at what the Leader of the Opposition says; look at what he does.