Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday the Prime Minister said that coal-fired power will be around forever. But Snowy Hydro has said that new coal doesn't stack up and it would mean that Snowy 2.0 is not viable. Isn't it the case that the government's plan to prop up coal-fired power with taxpayer funds will affect the viability of Snowy 2.0?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The short answer is: absolutely not. The whole premise of the Leader of the Opposition's question is, as with so much of what he says here, completely bogus. The reality is that Labor has imposed higher and higher energy prices on Australian families. That is what Labor did. We are seeing now, thanks to our policies, retail prices coming down for the first time in a long time. We're starting to see—we are seeing, in fact—a halving of wholesale gas prices over 18 months, and we've seen wholesale generation prices come down by 30 per cent. Our policies are working. Labor wants to engage in an ideological war about one form of energy rather than another. That is how they created the problem in the first place.

Clearly, the focus must be on lower energy prices. People have been paying too much for electricity. Focus on getting prices down, ensuring power is reliable and the lights stay on, ensuring you've got dispatchable power—coal is always going to be a big part of that—and making sure that you have got lower prices, but let the market and technology determine what is the best, most cost-effective solution. Our policy, the National Energy Guarantee, is technology agnostic. It is designed to ensure that you have dispatchable power, reliable power and affordable power and that you meet your Paris emissions targets. That can be done with a variety of technologies. Coal is a big part of it now. I believe it will be a big part of it for a very long time, but let the market and the competing technologies work it out.

The reality is that Labor has declared a war on jobs, it's declared a war on business—

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rubbish!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has. The member for Isaacs there is complaining about my remarks. He knows, just like the member for Bass does, that the Leader of the Opposition has given up on Australian jobs and given up on Australian business. In that excruciating interview of the member for Bass by Brian Carlton, 13 times he was asked—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Simply on direct relevance, Mr Speaker.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do uphold that point of order. The question had nothing to do with that subject matter. If the Prime Minister wants to address that subject matter, he'll—the question was about energy. The Prime Minister has completed his answer.