Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House how the government is acting to build a stronger economy so that Australian families earn more and live better? Is the Prime Minister aware of any threats posed by alternative proposals?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. We're doing this because we're taking action on reducing electricity prices by getting the big energy companies under control. They're the measures we've announced today. They're the measures that the 'minister for getting electricity prices down'—the member for Hume—and I have announced today: to provide a price safety net which will end the loyalty tax which big electricity companies have been putting on their loyal customers for doing nothing other than staying with the same company. Under the measures that we have announced today, the loyalty tax will go from electricity companies and the price safety net is underway and will be delivered to the Australian people.

The big stick to ensure that electricity companies, the big electricity companies, are taken into line will be legislated, and the legislation will come into this parliament before the end of the year to ensure that they must pass on the savings they're seeing through the wholesale prices. The gouging must stop, and these powers will range from everything from enforceable undertakings to divestment powers against these big energy companies so they do the right thing. The big energy companies know that I don't bluff on this or anything else. We are bringing in those rules and we expect them to do the right thing by their customers and bring those electricity prices down. We're backing in investment in fair dinkum, real power generation—power generation on the East Coast that is needed to ensure that the lights stay on and we don't see the farce that we saw in South Australia, under Labor's failed energy policies, which switched off the lights. Under our policies, getting more reliable energy into the system is what is needed—extra generation, putting more competition into the market and delivering lower electricity prices. We are doing all of this while meeting the targets that we have set for ourselves. In a canter, we have smashed Kyoto 1; we will meet Kyoto 2 and we will meet the commitments that we have made out to 2030.

But the Labor Party have another plan. The Labor Party have a plan to have an emissions reduction target of 45 per cent, which will put an increase in the cost on every power bill in this country greater than the carbon tax they legislated and they said they would never introduce when they were last in government. They have a plan for higher taxes, and that includes higher charges on electricity as a result of the reckless policies that they would pursue. Under Labor, you will pay more. You'll pay more in tax, you'll pay more for your electricity prices—more than $200 billion in higher taxes, which slows the economy, takes jobs away from Australians and ensures that they do not earn more, because they'll only be taxed more.