Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've received a letter from the honourable member for Fairfax proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The lack of a government plan to manage sky rocketing energy prices in Australia.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders h aving risen in their places—

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Context counts, and at the moment, throughout Australia, we are hearing three key concerns about the government's energy plan. No. 1 is prices. We know that households as well as businesses and industries as a whole are struggling due to skyrocketing prices. No. 2 is reliability in the grid, both in the short term due to the lack of gas and in the medium to long term because of the premature closure of baseload power stations. And the No. 3 concern is that the Labor government lack a social licence to roll out renewables at the speed and scale they plan to. Their plan includes 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines; 22,000 solar panels every single day up to 2030; and 40 new wind turbines a month also through to 2030. The social licence is not there.

But as much as context counts, so too does history. History says that this story at the moment is a story between a decade of delivery and six months of motherhood statements. In that decade of delivery, if you look at the last term of government alone under the coalition, we saw prices come down by eight per cent for Australian households. We saw prices come down for businesses by 10 per cent, and for industry by 12 per cent. Yet, since Labor has come to office, we all know what has happened to power prices. They have only increased. This is despite every single member opposite on the government benches telling the Australian people—promising them—that they would deliver a reduction in power prices to households.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By how much?

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By $275—a dollar figure that the government now refuse to come to the dispatch box and even talk about, because they know the truth: since coming to office not only have they failed to make any march towards that promise, but their budget revealed the fact that prices will continue to go up—over 50 per cent for electricity, over 40 per cent for gas.

You could argue, and I wouldn't blame people if they did argue it, that this is a new government and maybe they're just on their L-plates—L for Labor, L for learner—and they're struggling. However, if you go back further in history and look at the former Labor government it's the exact same story. Under the former Labor government, prices went up by over 100 per cent. Labor is back, and so are the high prices, and it should come as no surprise. So yes, context counts; yes, history counts. But so do today and tomorrow count, and they count the most. And as of today, we know that regardless of what colour political stripe the MPs in this place have, each of us has constituents that right now are in an enormous amount of pain. It doesn't matter if their MP is a Labor MP, a Green, a crossbencher or from the coalition: we have senior citizens who are struggling to pay their bills right now. Today, how many families are opening up that power bill and asking: 'How are we going to handle Christmas coming up? How can we pay for the kids' education next year?' Power bills are going up.

We also know that businesses are threatening to close. The Australian Workers Union say that up to 800,000 workers might lose their jobs—800,000. That's the AWU saying that; it's not the coalition saying that. Everybody in this place should be very concerned about where power prices are going. Yet this government has no plan—no plan at all—to address this. Now, they did have a plan, and that plan was called Powering Australia. What's happened to Powering Australia? Why is it that Labor are no longer talking about Powering Australia? I'll tell you why: because Powering Australia was based on economic modelling that has now been disproven. Who has disproven the economic modelling behind Labor's plan? Has it been the coalition? Industry? Has it been right-wing think tanks? No; it was the government's own budget. The government's own budget has proven that their policy is wrong, that the economic modelling is wrong.

The economic modelling of those opposite on the government benches said power prices would come down. Their own budget: Treasury says power prices are going up, not down. If that's not enough, how about the responsible department? Two weeks ago, with the budget—just last weekend—the very department responsible for climate change and energy removed the Powering Australia policy document from its website. So, not only is Treasury disassociating itself from this government's modelling and Powering Australia plan but the very department responsible for implementing it is now disassociating itself. It, too, does not believe anything that's come from this Labor government. When you have your own department leaving you, when you have Treasury leaving you, you know you have a problem, and the problem is that you just don't have a plan.

If you look at the reason the Prime Minister gave to the Australian Financial Review for not attending COP in Egypt, it was that he wasn't going to attend COP because it was merely about implementation—as if that pesky, annoying thing about having an implementation plan doesn't actually count. This is the Achilles heel of the Labor Party, of this government. They're big on the grant stuff. Give them a vision statement; they love it. Give them a mission statement; they love it. Give them motherhood statements; they love it. But they cannot deliver an implementation plans. And if you lack an implementation plan you have nothing to guide you other than that big visionary statement, and this is the problem.

It is only human nature: when you lack a plan, what do you fall back on? Your natural instinct. And we've seen that Labor's natural instinct is to demonise gas. We've seen it from the very beginning, with the now minister using crude expressions like 'BS', calling the coalition's plan to have more gas infrastructure a 'fraud'. This government ripped over $50 million from infrastructure for gas in their budget. At a time when the rest of Australia is saying, 'We need more supply in the market,' this government rips out infrastructure funding to ensure we can have that supply facilitated and transported across the country. This is the same government that went to the Australian people and said that renewables are the enemy of gas. Whenever we talk about gas, what do they talk about? It's renewables. In the game we heard in Senate estimates, the officials of the department talk about the fact that gas is a partner for the intermittency of renewables, yet government will argue that gas is the enemy, which is why they're ripping money out of gas. It's why they are not backing Cooper and they're not backing the Beetaloo basin. It's an absolute disgrace.

This is the same government, by the way, which is now saying, 'Well, maybe we do need more supply of gas in the market. 'They took gas out of the capacity mechanism. The minister stood at a press conference and made it very clear that the capacity mechanism, which was basically an insurance plan to ensure we had backup, should not include technologies such as gas. They are doing everything to demonise gas. The Kurri Kurri plant was meant to be gas. This government promised it would be 30 per cent hydrogen by day one. How is that going? Guess how much hydrogen will be there on day one of Kurri Kurri. Zero—not one percentage point. Of course, Paul Broad, who was CEO of Snowy Hydro, told the ministers this. He lost his job because he was straight with his advice. The budget vindicated this, because the government had no money to transfer it to hydrogen. Again, it is flawed, they have no plan and each and every member of the government is culpable in this distruth.

Government members interjecting—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Time has expired. Member for Macnamara and Member for Hawke, I remind you you are not in your seats.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We can all take a deep breath after Radioactive Man turned it right up, didn't he? He turned the reactor right up! I do admire those opposite because they're not burdened by self-doubt! They are not burdened by self-doubt—or history or a sense of policy or governance. None of those details bother them, and I think that must bring some sort of freedom when you come into this place and don't really have a sense of history; you're willing to say whatever you want.

So why don't we go down a trip down memory lane? Why don't we go for a journey? It's a beautiful day outside. I'm sure there are many Australians enjoying this MPI on their screens. I'm sure they are all thinking, 'Goodness, thank God that last speaker's over.' But why don't we go down energy lane? The previous government had a number of different energy policies. The first one was the NEG. We remember the NEG, the National Energy Guarantee. It was not the worst idea from those opposite; in fact, the former minister for energy, the former member for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, brought the National Energy Guarantee to the parliament. He did a few press conferences with the then leader. In fact, the then Labor opposition—proudly now the Labor government—was even willing to negotiate and come to the table, saying: 'You know what? An idea that brings industry together to guarantee supply while also looking at ways in which we can increase renewable energy into the national energy grid—you know, for a bunch of people over there that we don't usually expect good ideas from, that wasn't a bad one.'

There was one problem with the National Energy Guarantee. It wasn't the Labor Party; it was the Liberal Party's own party room that killed the National Energy Guarantee. In fact, the only thing the National Energy Guarantee guaranteed—it didn't guarantee any energy—was that Malcolm Turnbull was no longer was the Prime Minister. It took the National Energy Guarantee to topple a Liberal Prime Minister.

There were a few other brilliant ideas that came out of it. Of course there was our friend, the member for Hume, who was busy last term as the minister for energy. He was not much on energy policy, to be frank. That wasn't his focus. To be fair, he was pretty busy downloading documents from the City of Sydney website. He was very busy with his $14 million worth of travel that, apparently Clover Moore—remember that? I think he did a press conference as well, saying that they used $14 million. Where did they go—to the moon? Where do you think they went?

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That must have been it. That's a lot of trips to Canberra from Sydney, isn't it—$14 million! But that didn't trouble him. He was determined to put up that story. Then there were his efforts in the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The hint with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is in its name—it's about clean energy.

Honourable members interjecting—

I know, it's shocking! Who would have thunk it? That was something that the member for Hume wanted to take out. He wanted the Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to invest in clean energy. The other thing I thought was amazing about the failed attempts of the member for Hume regarding the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was that the return on investment required for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was all about good investments. It's one of the most successful government agencies to invest in programs to get a good return on investment. Except what the member for Hume wanted to do was take out the financially responsible aspects of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. He wanted to turn the Clean Energy Finance Corporation into a government agency that didn't invest in clean energy and didn't have any financial responsibility. It was just going to be 'the agency', because it had no other link.

An honourable member: I feel a colour-coded spreadsheet coming on!

A colour-coded spreadsheet, yes! There were a few seats over that they should have done more colour-coded spreadsheets for. Then there was the Collinsville coal-fired power station. The former member for Dawson was pretty keen on that, but—

Honourable members interjecting—

Yes, with Senator Canavan and a few others from his band of merry men. Canavan was getting some chalk and updating his Twitter bio—that's what Senator Canavan was up to! Anyway, it brings me to the member for Fairfax, who is our new friend leading those opposite and who led the MPI. I have a soft spot for the member for Fairfax—he's a good-natured character.

We on this side of the House recognise the fact that there are energy price struggles that Australian people are facing. We absolutely recognise that. We recognise the fact that for too long this country has been crippled by having no energy policy. We need to get energy prices down and we need to ensure that gas prices are as low as possible. The work going on behind the scenes by the ministers and the Prime Minister is extremely important. But you would think that, while energy prices are so high, you wouldn't go for the highest and most expensive form of energy as the main policy to rectify those high-energy prices. Surely! I know that they aren't burdened by logic and they're not burdened by sense, but surely that makes no sense. The member for Fairfax has in his electorate the Coolum Beach Surf Club—unfortunately, today we're going to have to announce that if the member for Fairfax has his way the Coolum Beach Surf Club is going to be transformed into the 'Coolum Beach Nuclear Reactor'. That's what it's going to be. They won't be doing the surf club in Coolum; they're just going to be 'Coolum down' the nuclear reactor! That's all they're going to be able to do in Coolum.

The member for Maranoa is the leader of this new push for nuclear energy. One of the great things in the member for Maranoa's electorate is the Stockmans Hall of Fame—it's a great part of regional Australia. But it's going to have to be shut down, unfortunately for the member for Maranoa because you're going to have the 'Stockmans Nuclear Power Plant' instead. It's not going to be the hall of fame; it's going to be the 'hall of uranium' in the in the member or Maranoa's electorate! There are so many others who are going to have to build nuclear reactors in their electorates—

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another colour-coded spreadsheet!

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another colour-coded spreadsheet—you all get a nuclear reactor! In all seriousness, nuclear energy is too expensive. We've had a lot of looks at it. In fact, I was on the committee with the member for Fairfax when we had a good look at this. Along with the member for Fremantle we had a good look at what nuclear reactors would mean for Australia—

An honourable member: For the 17th time.

For the 17th time! It was a clear example that the economics don't stack up. Of course, we have a nuclear reactor in Lucas Heights, which does incredible work creating medicines. We have nothing against the technology, but the economics of this simply doesn't make sense.

We're not going to be lectured by those people who want to make energy prices go even higher. We on this side of the House are going to work on a simple energy price policy: 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. It's going to be the most important thing so that we can bring down long-term power prices. It's going to be the most important thing so that we can have sovereignty in Australia on our electricity grid. We're not going to have an electricity grid that's so responsive to international pressures. We'll have an electricity grid where we won't have people like the member for Hume coming into this place and destroying the energy grid. The member for Hume and the member for Fairfax like to come into this place and talk about energy prices.

Just before question time today Mr Luke Yeaman, deputy secretary, in estimates gave an alarming piece of evidence when he said that the current increase in energy prices this financial year reflects increases in the default market offers published in May by the Australian Energy Regulator and associated market dynamics. In other words, electricity prices are so high because of the things that happened under their watch. Instead of Angus Taylor, the member for Hume, being free and open and honest with the Australian people, he tried to hide the regulations that keep the default market offer from the Australian people.

We are not going to be lectured by the characters who tried to destroy the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, who brought in the NEG and who ended up destroying the Malcolm Turnbull prime ministership. We're not going to be lectured by the people who, with high energy prices, want to bring in nuclear reactors, the most expensive and slowest form of energy. What we on this side of the House are going to invest in is renewable energy because it is going to be the thing that brings down power prices, the thing that powers Australian homes and the thing that creates thousands of jobs, creates five out of six jobs in Australian regions. That is exactly what we are going to do.

Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Macnamara has spent 10 minutes mocking those Australians who are struggling to pay their bills. They are literally losing their homes, going to live in their cars and losing their jobs. I had a local businessman in the week just past—and I won't name his business because I don't know if he's informed his employees; he had a satellite business in Hervey Bay, that's what he does—who has an estimate that his power bill will go up by $40,000. As a result he will be closing that facility in Hervey Bay and those jobs will be lost. For those interjecting, I inform them that in Queensland that price is set by the Queensland Labor government. You should inform yourself: it is set by the Queensland Labor government because they own the retailer. They own all of the transmission, they own 70 per cent of the generators, so for those opposite injecting, you might want to ring your Labor mates in Queensland and ask them to fix it.

We heard from the member for Macnamara. I was hopeful, with two minutes to go, that they'd move to Labor policy, but it lasted about 20 seconds. We had multiple mentions of the member for Hume, the former member for Kooyong, the former member for Dawson, Senator Canavan, the member for Fairfax, the member for Maranoa. This is an opportunity to put your policy forward, and I'd say to those other speakers: you should come to it immediately in the five minutes that you have.

There is a plan from those opposite—it was demonstrated in the budget—and that is an increase in electricity costs of up to 56 per cent. The people that I represent have a per capita income of less than $34,000 a year. They just can't pay—they cannot pay. And what have we seen from those opposite? This is the plan—they do have a plan—and the plan is to cut funding to support getting gas into the market, particularly the domestic market, as quickly as possible. They have cut $23 million from the plan for the Beetaloo. The Beetaloo would have delivered some 6,000 jobs into the Northern Territory, many of those in Aboriginal communities. It would have given them export opportunities and the potential to link into the rest of the network once it was upgraded. We have seen those opposite take away the things that would have helped to drive down prices for domestic gas, in particular. They've cut $31 million from the Cooper Adavale strategic basin plan. The reason the strategic basin plans were put in place was to ensure we could get more gas online, particularly for domestic supply.

If you want to know what's happening in Victoria, it's pretty straightforward. There has been a moratorium on exploration for gas for a decade. So, if you have depletion in your reserves—and that is what's happening in the Bass Strait—then you run out of gas. It is really straightforward. Yet those opposite want to blame Ukraine. They want to blame coal prices. Well, most coal-fired power stations have long-term contracts. They have fixed contracts for delivery, and in Queensland the generator and the mine are generally owned by the Queensland Labor government, who are hooking more than a billion dollars in profits out of those GOCs—a billion dollars. So it's pretty straightforward.

Just to put the cherry on top, what else did they do? They provided $2.6 million a year ongoing to the Environmental Defenders Office. Now, what are they famous for? They are famous for stopping resource projects. In fact, they've just stopped one. Guess what? The Barossa project off the Northern Territory, a $5 billion investment by Santos, is currently suspended. They have already expended more than $2 billion on this project. They are now parked up, stacked up and stood down. Do you want to know why? It is because the Labor Party have now provided more money for environmental activists to take on more lawfare to shut more projects for gas.

It's easy for the member for Macnamara to wax lyrical about everybody else, but we didn't hear anything about Labor's policies. We didn't hear anything about how they were going to drive down prices, because their own budget said prices were increasing by up to 56 per cent. Now, what else does the Environmental Defenders Office want to do? They want to take on the Scarborough project, one of the biggest offshore projects in WA in many, many years. If I recall the numbers correctly, I think it was around US$14 billion. It gives an extension on the Pluto LNG plant at Karratha. That brings more jobs into Western Australia, particularly up in the north, and it also provides more opportunities.

But I come back to what I said earlier. I have a local business owner who I just happened to run into who is being told that the cost for electricity alone for their business in Hervey Bay will go up by $40,000, and they will close. What does that mean? They're going to try to cover those customers by truck with delivery from Bundaberg. That will mean more trucks on the road, more cost to consumers and more cost across the road. The Labor Party should be ashamed of themselves.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a little bit of a 101 lesson for those opposite: energy prices going up has not happened just since the federal election. The role that federal government plays in setting leadership is a core responsibility of the federal government. Making sure that you've got the policy settings right, making sure that you're working with state governments and that you have a plan for how you're going to secure Australia's energy future long term are core roles of business. Yet what we saw from the previous government was utter chaos.

There was almost a decade of utter chaos that created the situation that we're in today. We inherited the absolute mess that the Australian energy market and the Australian energy industry are in. Not only did they not deliver one kilowatt of the one billion kilowatts of new generation that they said they would implement over the period—not only did we not see one new kilowatt—we also saw delays on a lot of projects. How proud the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was to say that he would build his signature policy, Snowy Hydro 2.0! It is running 18 months late. Still it is failing to deliver. The previous government also, right before the election, went to the extent of hiding from the Australian people, particularly in the states of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. They delayed the release date of the increase to the default market. How more dishonest can you get than that?

A decade ago they were ranting about energy prices. They got elected to government and then destroyed confidence. They destroyed confidence to invest in the transition that was required. The rest of the world is decarbonising. The rest of the world is transitioning. But what the previous government did was destroy the infrastructure that the former Labor government had put in place, and that is what has caused people to lose their jobs. That is what has put a shake in the confidence of people investing in the energy industry. That is what has caused the chaos and the high prices that we have seen.

So what has our government been doing since it was elected? We have started to clean up the mess of those opposite. We know, like the rest of the world knows, that renewable energy is the cleanest, cheapest energy that we have going. That is why we are re-engineering. We are powering Australia through our plan to make sure that we have a grid that is modern and works. We will help get the renewable energy that is generated around Australia into our cities.

My electorate will benefit. Just north of me we have been waiting for the KerangLink to be built. It is north of us, around Central and Northern Victoria. It is a great source of possible renewable energy. This link will help power Melbourne.

What's happening in Tasmania? The state which has smashed 100 per cent renewable energy will actually help to power the mainland. I'm sure that's something that they are quite proud of. Our government is partnering with the Victorian government and the Tasmanian government to help generate the cleaner, greener renewable energy that will help power our major cities. What we are also doing, at a local level, is helping communities power themselves by investing in community batteries that will allow 400 community-scale batteries for up to a thousand Australian households to share clean energy. It's a smart plan. It complements our plan to rewire, reengineer the grid to get ourselves to be a power sharing grid. It's smart. People in my electorate—in one of my towns, in Maldon—are really looking forward to the opportunity. For those with solar power who have excess they can share it with their neighbours. It's a smart policy.

Rewiring the Nation, as I have talked about, will deliver the two major projects of $6 billion in Victoria and Tasmania alone. This is the smart, forward thinking that our government has introduced. It's the partnerships with the states that have been lacking. To make sure we get energy prices down we need a comprehensive strategic plan that has leadership, that's willing to work with states—not fight against them for political reasons—that's hoping to achieve what Australians need. If you want to help businesses and households get their energy bills down we need leadership, not what we have from those opposite, which is more and more rhetoric.

Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to raise the alarm, the alarm that is ringing loud and clear in Western Sydney. My community of Lindsay in Western Sydney is a microcosm of Australia because it has families, young people, retired people, small businesses and it has lots and lots of community spirit. It is for these reasons—and the aspiration that is driving people in my community—that we are at the epicentre of the cost-of-living crisis, driven largely by high energy prices. We should all be worried that if the 'Howard battler' of yesterday becomes the new 'Albanese abandoned' of tomorrow our whole country is in deep trouble.

The member for Macnamara talked about a long-term plan, but people in my community right across Western Sydney need a plan right now—not something that the government can cost in the future. Families are already under immense financial strain. The 2021 census revealed that mortgage stress was already impacting nearly 20 per cent of households in Lindsay. Many people were spending more than 30 per cent of their income on their mortgage repayments. With interest rates reaching the seventh rise and it continuing to go up more households are going to be under financial stress. It's from the cumulative impact of each and every cost-of-living pressure—including inflation, interest rates and energy prices—that the pain is felt in Western Sydney, and people can't take much more.

A local homeless and housing organisation I spoke to just last week told me that food insecurity is on the rise. The people who are coming to their doors to collect hampers of groceries aren't people that are sleeping rough. They are pensioners, they are retirees and they are families. The decision to pay the rent or the mortgage or use electricity against putting food on the table is very real.

Also standing on the edge of the cliff is small businesses. Manufacturers are facing energy price rises of 300 per cent. They told me that they may not last beyond Christmas. Where they used to pay $60,000 on their energy they're paying over $200,000 a month. These are small businesses, small manufacturers who are the backbone of our country, who those opposite are meant to be having a plan for and supporting. These outrageous costs are about to push them beyond the point of no return. They will be no more Australian manufacturing. There will be no more 'Aussie made' because they can't pay their energy bills. In an era when we're fighting for the resurgence of Australian manufacturing, businesses are not only at threat of closing but of going offshore and never coming back to our country, with thousands and thousands of jobs lost. Local cafe owners have been struggling to find new staff. They are now struggling to make ends meet. They tell me they can't absorb the increased costs of electricity on top of supply chain shortages and on top of workforce shortages. They're now left wondering how much people will pay for a coffee when their cafe needs to pass on those costs just to keep their doors open. The $275 cheaper electricity that Labor promised Australians during the election is now not only a broken promise to households and small business owners but just a drop in the ocean when electricity prices are looking at rising by over 50 per cent.

The underlying impact of all of these pressures, combined with the pandemic and floods, also means that we are facing a tsunami of mental health issues. As shadow assistant minister for mental health and suicide prevention, I know that mental health organisations are preparing for this. It is now understood that mental health impacts are not fully realised until two to three years after a significant event, and, at the time that Australians need support the most, the Albanese government isn't supporting Australians at all. Western Sydney has raised the alarm; I hardly feel that those opposite are listening at all.

Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's true that rising energy prices are affecting families right across Australia, and affecting businesses as well. And Australians know the reasons why energy prices are rising. They know that Russia is the largest energy producer in the world and they know that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected energy markets across the globe. They know that OPEC's reluctance to increase oil production has exacerbated this problem. They know that climate change right here in Australia is also affecting domestic electricity supply. Unplanned outages at power stations caused by extreme weather over the last 12 months have meant that less electricity is being produced. And in May 2022, up to 30 per cent of national coal generation capacity was offline at different times.

Australians know that these factors are causing a perfect storm in energy markets, leading to higher prices. But the question is: why are Australians so vulnerable to these shocks? What are the factors that have caused these global shocks to have such a terrible impact on Australia's domestic energy market? Why are Australian families and businesses left so exposed? To answer those questions we need to look back at how Australia has approached its energy market over the last decade. How did we manage not to shield ourselves against global energy markets? How did we manage not to prepare? How did we manage not to make our country more resilient to these shocks? And what should we have been doing over the last 10 years? What are the lessons that we can learn from a decade of inaction, a decade of denial and a decade of delay?

The first thing we could have done would be to go back and put significant investment into new generation—new generation that increases supply and reduces prices. But we didn't do that. In the last 10 years, four gigawatts of energy generation came off and only one gigawatt of energy generation came on. Australia missed the boat on the opportunity to enhance our energy supply and to put us in a stronger position to face the type of global shock that Australian families are suffering from right now.

The second thing we could have done, if we had a time machine and went back in time, would be to lift the share of renewable energy in our energy mix. That would have made Australia more resilient to the current global circumstances. It would have kept prices down, because renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy into the grid. It would have helped make Australia more resilient to global shocks, because renewable energy sources aren't as vulnerable to the vicissitudes of geopolitics.

The third thing we could have been doing, if we went back in time, would have been to modernise our grid, creating new transmission pathways so that we could move energy from where it's generated to where it's consumed—actions like building linkages between the enormous potential of Tassie's hydro and the east coast grid. But, again, we didn't do that.

The fourth thing we could have been doing over the last decade would have been to prepare for a transition away from fossil fuels. That's because fossil fuels are expensive and it's because fossil fuels are vulnerable to the global shocks that we're experiencing right now. But, again, that didn't happen. Instead the previous government doubled down on fossil fuels in our energy mix. They had the bright idea of a gas-led recovery. Well, aren't we all paying the price for that gas-led recovery right now? That gas-led recovery has become a gas cul-de-sac as the cost has increased from $4 to $34 per gigajoule.

This failure to act, this failure to lift supply, this failure to shift the dial towards renewables, this failure to modernise our grid, this failure to move away from fossil fuels—these are the things that have left Australian families vulnerable. These are the things that have put Australia's energy market in this position that is so precarious and so vulnerable to global shocks. When Australian families get their higher energy bills over the next few months, they know exactly who they have to blame for a decade of inaction, a decade of denial, a decade of dithering.

By contrast, this government does have a plan: more renewables into the system; building transmission, including 10,000 kilometres of transmission lines so that we can move renewable energy around Australia's grid; and building the storage to support renewable energy's efficacy in the grid. This is the government's plan, and the government is working with a range of stakeholders on this plan. We're working with the states through the National Energy Transformation Partnership. We're working with businesses. Businesses in many cases have stepped into the leadership position created by the vacuum of the previous government, setting up their own pathways towards net zero. More than 30 of the ASX 200 already have a plan to arrive— (Time expired)

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is taking Australian for fools. Labor is spinning this utopian dream to Aussies about how renewables will solve their energy problems. The government has failed to instil public confidence that it understands the issue or has a plan to address it. The longer they carry on like this, the more this will turn into a crisis. The government must relent on their renewable pipedream before it is too late for Australia and we end up in a situation where only rich people can afford to cook their food, heat their homes, and turn on their air conditioner. The Labor spin doctors will also tell you: 'Get used to it. Get used to the rising cost of living. Energy prices are going up, and it's just what it is.' But this is on the back of those opposite getting elected on a promise to the Australian people of a cut of $275 to their power bills.

Now, this wasn't just a slip of the tongue. This was mentioned to the Australian people 97 times, but what's happened? In the last two weeks, they brought down a budget that shows that power prices will increase by 56 per cent. Those are not our words; they are their words in the budget. This prompted a call from one of my constituents, who manages and owns a cool-store facility. His business model is that he picks up fruit and veggies from the farm, takes it to the cool store, cools it down and then distributes it to the shops. His biggest input costs are electricity and fuel. Both of these have skyrocketed under Labor's watch. A 56 per cent increase in electricity will send him to the wall. He said to me: 'Andrew, what can I do? I can't afford it. I can't afford to absorb those costs, and my customers can't afford to pay any more. What do I do?' I said: 'Well, we need a plan. I'm not in government, so all I can do is raise these issues with the current government.'

You have to have a plan. Energy options need to be all of that: hydro, wind, solar, coal, gas—and we need to be having the conversation about nuclear. It is way, way too early and too premature to shut down all the coal and gas. We also need some certainty for the coal- and gas-fired power stations so they can keep doing their maintenance. We need power that is reliable and affordable 24/7.

I have solar at my house. I've got a 15-kilowatt system. The most puts out is 14 kilowatts, and that's in the middle of the day. But I know what happens at night-time: it produces zero. And, in the middle of the day, when it is producing 14 kilowatts and the cloud comes over or it rains, it produces very little as well. Wind is similar; it's the same model. It is unreliable and intermittent. When the wind doesn't blow, it doesn't generate electricity. This is the model that the Labor Party is pushing. They are doubling down on unreliable and intermittent electricity. That is like me going out for dinner, going to a restaurant and having the worst feed I have had in my life, turning up the next night, taking my missus there as well, ordering twice as much, and expecting a different result. I can't believe it. Talk about doubling down.

I listened to a flood victim this morning. She was devastated because she hasn't got electricity and gas delivered to her place. Get ready, Australia, because under these guys' watch that's going to be a daily occurrence. I am genuinely concerned that this government does not have a plan to manage the skyrocketing energy prices. It is a bleak future, and they have no regard for the real impacts on all our lives. We are entering uncharted territory here. It's not fun and games; it's unrealistic and it is plain foolish. If this government doesn't change track soon, we are all going to end up in a very dark place.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we can all appreciate the hypocrisy of the Liberals attacking the government on energy prices after the decade in which they did nothing, particularly the member for Fairfax getting all yeasty over there. It's no secret that, when in government, those opposite had no effective plan to deliver cheaper energy to Australian families and businesses. After nine years, several energy ministers, and over 20 different energy policies, the former Liberal government did nothing to secure the long-term affordability and security of our country's energy supply. Instead, they spent years squabbling amongst themselves, neglecting our national energy infrastructure while they were busy arguing about how long they could delay the inevitable transition to more efficient, cheaper and cleaner energy technology. Prime ministers were rolled. Deputy prime ministers were removed and energy ministers changed. While there was plenty of action in the Liberal Party party room, the National Party party room and the coalition joint party room, there was absolutely no action where it mattered.

Just before the music stopped and time ran out on the former government, the now shadow Treasurer sought to cover up a decade of inaction. Four days before the election was called, he amended the industry code for electricity retailers to delay the release of a 19.7 per cent increase to the default market offer until after the election—a shameless and desperate attempt to hide his failure to deliver any new energy infrastructure for the Australian people. As the House has heard, after promising a billion dollars for 3,800 megawatts of new generation, the member for Hume was utterly unable to deliver.

As we have said time and time again on this side, renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. In fact, the CSIRO and AEMO have confirmed that wind and solar are by far the cheapest source of electricity generation and storage in Australia.. Delivering more renewables will put downward pressure on energy bills, which is why, under Labor's Powering Australia plan, the share of low-cost renewables in the National Electricity Market will increase to 82 per cent by 2030.

We also understand that delivering more renewable energy generation is only part of the solution to provide more short-term relief. The government is delivering significant reform of the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which allows government to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of natural gas to meet the needs of Australian energy users. Most notably, we are moving to quarterly based consideration of the forecast demand to ensure that the mechanism is sufficiently responsive to market changes.

The Minister for Resources also announced in September that the Albanese Labor government had signed a new heads of agreement with east coast LNG exporters to shore up our domestic gas supply by delivering an additional 157 petajoules to the east coast market next year. These are practical approaches; they're smart ideas that actually deliver outcomes for Australian households, that drive household energy prices down and that support Australian manufacturing with practical outcomes. As part of last month's budget the Albanese Labor government also asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to examine the code of conduct that governs the agreements between gas suppliers and gas customers, to improve price transparency.

The national energy network cannot be overhauled overnight. A decade of inaction and a decade of failure by those opposite has left Australian households and businesses in dire circumstances. But this government is getting on with the hard work that's required to address that. We're ensuring that Australians have access to affordable energy in the long term, but that requires regular and ongoing investment—something that only an Albanese Labor government will deliver. The opposition is clearly obsessed with standing in the way of market forces which are driving the transition to renewable energy. Coal-fired power plants are being shut down ahead of schedule, not by the government but by business.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the energy costs that Australians are facing: whether you're an individual family; a pensioner, like many of the people in my electorate; or a small or very large business—a supermarket, a bakery or a coffee shop—every industry and every job in this country relies on electricity. The reason they're all screaming is because the electricity dilemma is policy driven.

The other side is trying to make out that it's just because of Ukraine's war with Russia and the lack of oil and gas as a result of Russia and Nord Stream being taken out. It goes far deeper than that. The reality is that the policies which the other side announced well and truly before this election, and are now starting to execute, will send this country to the wall. We have seen 56 per cent increases in the cost of electricity, sure, but some of my factories and businesses have seen 320 per cent increases put to them recently.

Why is the electricity market so expensive? It's because of the national electricity market rules and regulations; all the hidden costs and subsidies; and the regulatory restrictions on trade. These things mean that a lot of the electricity produced isn't paid for because of the kilowatts that are delivered, it's because of all the other restrictions put on the baseload generators. For years, these worked efficiently when they were operating at 100 per cent capacity. But regulations generated by the Renewable Energy Target and the national electricity market rules mean that they've been told to turn off when it happens to be a sunny day or a windy day. These plants aren't designed to do that; to be able to ramp up and to ramp down is only a facility in very modern power plants. The member for Hunter would understand all this: that's why your cheap electricity has gone out. The renewable energy industry has convinced government after government to subsidise it through restrictive regulations and renewable energy certificates.

No wonder they want net zero—it means permanent renewable energy certificates. It ends up that consumers pay that price; that doesn't appear in the market. But it means they get a second pay day whenever they manage to generate. They get paid for their kilowatts when it happens to be a nice day—not cloudy, not raining and not like La Nina weather patterns, where it's cloudy, rainy and wet for weeks on end. So no wonder the bankers are falling over themselves. It's a real scam. It's the biggest bloody Ponzi scheme—excuse me, Madam Speaker—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You don't need to excuse yourself to me. You might want to withdraw it though.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, sorry.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you wish to withdraw the remark?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a word I used talking about the Ponzi scheme, but it wasn't addressed at you.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Would you assist the House in withdrawing it?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, sure. I withdraw it.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, that's great.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a bit of a Ponzi scheme. We are seeing policies that are going to double down and triple down on these policies that we have resisted. Everyone thinks that the federal energy minister controls everything. He gets to chair the meetings but the state energy ministers also have a say, and they appoint most of the people on AEMO.

The concept that your electricity is based on just the generation cost—add a windmill in the middle of a paddock or on a mountain or add a solar panel. Sure, it's cheap. But what you get with variable renewable energy is poor frequency control, low voltage and random availability, and that costs a lot to integrate into the grid. So the grid ancillary services and all the synchronous condensers, all the inverters, all the massive transmission losses because it's low-voltage energy—that's why your energy costs are going up. Rewiring the nation and repowering the nation will triple and quadruple the costs and really send us to the wall.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity today to talk about the government's plan when it comes to energy. This Albanese Labor government has done more in 171 days than the previous government did in almost a decade. We are acting to fix the mess left behind by those opposite and deliver overdue policy certainty and invest in the cheapest form of energy: renewables.

Unlike those opposite, we are powering towards renewable energy investment and implementation, not running from it. Renewable energy is cheaper energy, and by moving the energy grid to 82 per cent renewables we will be reducing energy prices. While the opposition refuses to accept the science, the experts are clear: renewables are the cheapest form of energy and getting cheaper. CSIRO and AEMO's GenCost 2021-22 report confirm that wind and solar are the cheapest source of electricity generation and storage in Australia.

This budget, we announced $224.3 million for community batteries for the household solar grants program—to deploy 400 community-scale batteries for up to 100,000 Australian households, including one in Warrawong, one of the lowest socioeconomic areas in my electorate. These community batteries will ensure that households across all demographics will have equal access to the benefits of renewable energy, no matter what your postcode or socioeconomic status.

We have also dedicated a $20 billion fund for Rewiring the Nation, including the Marinus Link, a project that was talked about for more than six years by those opposite. But Minister Bowen and the Albanese Labor government got it over the line in less than six months. This includes $1.9 billion to the Powering the Regions Fund, to make sure traditional and emerging industries in regional Australia, like my electorate, are not left behind, regions like the Illawarra. It is my priority to make sure my community is well equipped to adapt and benefit in the transition to renewables.

I am pleased to have secured $10 million for an energy futures skills centre at the University of Wollongong.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why would you want to deny the workers an education to upgrade their skills? I just don't understand that. And there's $2.5 million for a renewable energy training facility at Wollongong TAFE. Do you know how to spell TAFE? We must invest in our local workers to make sure we have the skills we need, moving forward, and the Albanese Labor government is doing just that. I know it's getting you angry. In addition, the Illawarra has been announced as one of six potential offshore wind energy zones, unlocking the path to cheaper and cleaner energy for hundreds of thousands of local residents. The Illawarra is quickly transforming itself into a renewable energy powerhouse. Companies like Green Gravity, Hysata, EcoJoule, Sicona and OceanX are all recognising our local industry capacity, our talent and our enthusiasm for renewable energy.

While those opposite spent nine long years on these government benches wasting time and announcing over 20 different energy policies, we have already gotten to work on our plan to deliver real action in preparing Australia for our clean energy future. Under the previous government, the former energy minister not only knew that electricity prices were skyrocketing; he ordered that the information be hidden from the Australian people before the election. Denial, delay, dishonesty—that's all we got from the previous government when it came to renewables, and now we're stuck cleaning up your mess.

But, as the budget showed, energy prices are a very real challenge for our economy, and there's no doubt that Australian households, businesses and industry are grappling with the impact. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years due to Russia's prolonged attack on Ukraine and an overreliance in Europe on one type of energy—namely, gas from Russia. Energy prices are forecast to stay higher for longer because global energy market disruptions have become more pronounced and are persisting longer than anticipated—and so are our domestic energy market challenges, which have been exacerbated by ageing electricity assets and inadequate policy certainty by those opposite to support— (Time expired)

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank members for their contributions. The discussion has now concluded.