Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's no easy fix for the energy problems facing every Australian; however, there must always be a plan to improve the situation. My 10-point plan identifies the issues and provides the solutions to at least get us on the right path to delivering safe and affordable power to all Australians. Front and centre of my plan are HELE coal-fired power stations. 'HELE' means high efficiency, low emissions. They exist in other parts of the world. Kogan Creek in Queensland is the closest we have, but it is still not enough. HELE plants are the most reliable, sustainable, affordable generators of energy. We must invest to upgrade our existing coal-fired power stations and extend their life. Upgrades would probably extend the life of most of our power stations. We have eight in Queensland, and we could probably extend their life for another 10 to 20 years. We must invest in HELE plants, do our upgrades and build new power stations, to boost the economy, deliver jobs and reduce the cost of electricity. HELE build time is three to five years, so we must start today.

We must stop the gouging. There are too many fingers in the pie all trying to scoop money out of the system, and these costs, of course, are put onto customers. State governments are robbing Peter to pay Paul to fund their debt crises. The gold-plated poles and wires, and then the return on investment put on those overvalued poles and wires, are crippling the electricity market. The poles and wires are owned by the governments, and the governments must come to terms with how much they want to take out of the electricity system to boost their coffers, a cost that is passed on to the consumer.

In Queensland we have the wholesalers Stanwell and CS Energy, and on the retail side we have Ergon and Energex. One must ask the question: why do we need four companies to deliver electricity to our houses and our industry? There are examples throughout my electorate of businesses where the network cost component of their electricity bill is more than half the actual usage bill—businesses like Biggenden Meatworks. Biggenden Meatworks is the lifeblood of Biggenden, supporting more than half of the town's working population; without the meatworks, Biggenden would no longer exist on a good economic basis. For instance, their November 2017 bill for operating a small abattoir was $20,400, of which $7,850 was for network charges. In December, that bill went up from $20,400 to $20,800 and network charges went up to $8,500. In January of this year, the bill rose to $21,280 and network charges to $8,300. That's a four per cent increase in the last three months. How much can a koala bear? The owner has told me that once he starts getting into a loss situation he'll have no alternative but to shut down the meatworks. I'm working with him constantly to stop that from happening, because it would be a disaster for the area.

We need reform in the NEM. The rules of the National Energy Market are out of date and were not designed to subsidise the construction of renewables. There is going to be a mix of renewables in our future energy supply, but they must learn to stand on their own two feet. We've got to protect our people against blackouts by delivering base-load power. Base-load power keeps the lights on and the economy moving. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Federa tion Chamber adjourned at 13:01