Jason Falinski (Mackellar, 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 government policies are putting downward pressure on power prices and how this is leading to more affordable and reliable energy for Australian businesses and families? How does this compare to other plans?

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

I thank the member for Mackellar for his question. He knows there's a clear difference between the Labor Party and the coalition on energy. The Labor Party want to put your prices up and the coalition want to drive them down. Under the coalition, you will always pay less for your power bill than you will under the Labor Party. Let's look at the Labor Party's record. When the Labor Party were last in office, power prices doubled. We got the dreaded $15 billion carbon tax. They ignored the warnings on gas. They didn't do anything to stop the gold plating of the networks and they let the retail market get out of control.

In contrast, the coalition have a plan, and our plan was to abolish the carbon tax, which saw the single biggest drop in electricity prices ever recorded; to stop the networks gaming the system; to get a better deal for thousands of Australian families from their retailers; to secure more gas before it's exported overseas; to build the infrastructure of the 21st century with Snowy 2.0; and to integrate energy and climate policies for the first time with the National Energy Guarantee, which will lower people's power bills. And the good news for families and businesses across Australia is that from the start of this year wholesale power prices are down some 30 per cent of what they were last year. This is good news for the nearly 9,000 small businesses in Braddon, the nearly 12,000 small businesses in Longman, the 19,000 small businesses in Mayo. These are businesses such as Harvest Moon in Forth, in Braddon, which exports around the world cabbage, carrots, cauliflower—no hot pies, but plenty of beans, plenty of beetroot and plenty of broccoli. They want to employ more forklift drivers, more field hands, more packers, and they can do that with lower power bills. These are businesses such as that owned by John Cranwell in Mayo, who's a third generation brussels sprout grower in Nairne, and Delta Hydraulics in Braddon, in Devonport, with 110 people that it wants to continue to employ.

Labor cannot be trusted on energy. They have reckless renewable targets. They want to bring back the electricity tax and they want to push up your power bills. Only the coalition can deliver a more affordable and reliable power system for Australian families and businesses.