Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Energy. Will the minister update the House on how the government is working to bring down electricity prices without having to increase taxes and ensuring reliable electricity for Australians? What impact will alternative approaches have?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question. It was great to spend time recently in his electorate in Queensland, talking to small businesses about the rip-offs that have been imposed on them by the big energy companies in Queensland—big energy companies that, incidentally, are owned by the Queensland Labor government. It turns out that Labor governments want higher electricity prices, and in the last year they ripped over $2 billion out of hardworking families and small businesses in Queensland.

The government has a strong plan for affordable, reliable energy for Australian families and hardworking small businesses. Our pressure on the big energy companies is delivering. We saw a couple of weeks ago AGL offering discounts of 10 per cent to its standing offer customers. That means 150,000 families and 27,000 small businesses will be better off. Just yesterday, EnergyAustralia announced discounts of 15 per cent on standing offers. That will be focused on concessional customers, which includes older customers, who don't have the ability to spend time negotiating with those companies every year.

We said we would deliver on lower electricity prices, and that is exactly what we're doing. On top of those initiatives, we'll bring forward big-stick legislation to the parliament that will hold the energy companies to account—legislation that those opposite are not supporting because they sit on the side of the big energy companies. We will underwrite 24/7 reliable supply in the market.

In contrast, those opposite want higher electricity prices. The member for Isaacs was outed yesterday. He was trying to hide carbon tax 2.0 when he said, 'I'm not going to rule it in or rule it out.' I heard this one live while I was sitting in the car, and almost drove off the road: the member for Shortland confirmed in an interview last Thursday that their policy is an implied carbon price—a sneaky hidden carbon price. The member for Port Adelaide, the shadow minister for energy himself, when asked by Leigh Sales on 7.30: 'Will Labor's policy include a carbon tax?' said:

It will cover all the other sectors of the economy apart from electricity.

Well that's agriculture, that's manufacturing, that's transport. They're the sectors that we will back, the sectors that we will support, because we believe in lower electricity prices. (Time expired)

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 member for Curtin said, 'Given that we've had so much uncertainty for so long, the ground must be fertile for there to be some negotiation on energy policy. I would like us to come up with a bipartisan solution.' Why won't the Prime Minister listen to the member for Curtin and work with Labor on the National Energy Guarantee, a policy which the current Treasurer designed and the current Prime Minister said would lower power prices?

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

The Leader of the Opposition referred to this policy as a Frankenstein policy. What that demonstrates is that you can never believe anything this bloke says. He is for everything and he is against everything. You have no idea. The Australian people—

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

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

The Prime Minister will pause for a second. The member for McEwen has already been warned. He interjects regularly; he can leave under 94(a).

The member for McEwen then left the chamber.

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

That's why after five years the Australian people have come to a conclusion on the leader of the Labor Party, and that is he can't be trusted on anything. He will blow with the wind whichever way political opportunism follows, because that is the nature and the character of the Leader of the Opposition. If you scratch him you won't find a belief. If you scratch him you won't find a conviction. All you will find is unvarnished ambition, as he took down one leader after the next. That's his bag. That is what he is known for. That's why people don't trust him. That's why all of his backbenchers don't trust him either. The Leader of the Opposition cannot be trusted. He can't be trusted by his colleagues, he can't be trusted by the Australian people when it comes to the economy and he can't be trusted by the workers of Australia, who he sold out as their advocate. He sold them out as their representative, as a union leader, for nothing other than his own vain ambition. The Australian people have a clear line of sight on this bloke, and they know he cannot be trusted.

By contrast, what we are saying when it comes to electricity prices is that we are working to bring them down. As the Minister for Energy has clearly stated today, both AGL and Energy Australia have taken decisions, after discussions with the government, which have resulted in actual real savings for hundreds of thousands of Australian on their electricity bill. Those opposite do not support the big stick legislation that will take it to the electricity companies to ensure we keep them in line. The Labor Party are going to side with the companies that have been increasing their profits at the expense of households.

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

Mr Speaker, I have a point of order on direct relevance. My question went to the member for Curtin's advice on the National Energy Guarantee. Why won't the Prime Minister ever mention the member for Curtin or the National Energy Guarantee?

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

The Prime Minister is in order.

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

The other thing the Leader of the Opposition plans to do is put a 45 per cent emissions reduction target on. We know that will increase electricity prices for every pensioner, every household and every business. It will see places like, as the member for Flynn knows, the Boyne Island smelter, with 1,000 jobs, going out of business because of the reckless policies of the leader of the Labor Party.

The Australian people will be faced with a choice at the next election: higher taxes and reckless policies on energy from the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party, or lower taxes, a stronger economy and services that Australians can rely on from the Liberals and the Nationals.