Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Queensland we've got state owned power generation, making us quite unique. It also means that all the profits are basically captured by the state government. We know it was about $2 billion two years ago and $1.9 billion this year. This is a state government artificially keeping prices as high as possible for Queenslanders to make as much profit as possible out of Queenslanders. When we investigated through the ACCC, we found in some cases standing offers $369 a year more expensive for households than they need to be. Of course the federal government is going to step in in those circumstances. No-one deserves to be facing a state owned monopoly and paying those kinds of prices. That $2 billion a year profit is equivalent to $22 million in pumped up, inflated power bills in my city alone every year. It's the most vulnerable that pay it. This is not a progressive system. The poorest are paying the relatively greatest proportion of that amount of money.

So we have to have a default market offer. We have to have the legislation that's in parliament today. We need to remind the Labor Party, before we get a case of group-wise pants-wetting, that it is not necessarily privatisation here; it's divestment. You can divest into more than one state owned power entity. What you can do is—and we're not going to do it for Queensland—you can have two publicly owned entities and have power responsibly divested to more than one publicly owned entity. You don't have to privatise. Let's have a look at the states that did privatise. When you go to the ACCC analysis—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Show some manners. When you go to the ACCC analysis, you find that Queensland's power prices in fact have increased by 66 per cent in just 10 years, and that's higher than any other state except South Australia. How did state Labor respond? They put up a graph, as they always would. Wait for this: it's a graph with no X axis, no Y axis and no labels. I know we all went through first-year stats, but a graph has to have an X axis, labelled, and a Y axis, labelled. There was none of that, and nothing from the ACCC. We just had from Queensland Labor four lines, with Queensland running along the bottom, being the cheapest. Yes, they were the cheapest in 2016. No, they're not the cheapest anymore in 2018. That's why this government is acting, with a default offer, saving Queenslanders up to 369 bucks a year, with a reference bill so you can do realistic comparisons between retailers in a meaningful way. If you want data, go to the ACCC. Look at the average wholesale cost of power. The data is collected nationally. We don't need a state government that is so frightened of privatisation because in the end they just want to collect that $2 billion a year out of the pockets of the most needy Queenslanders.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If there is no objection from any member in the chamber, we will continue with three-minute statements until 11 am.