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

The champagne corks were popping, over in the ministerial wing, when the default market offer reductions were announced. But—hey presto!—it's only $1 a week, when Ausgrid's fees have gone up $380 since this government came to power; Essential Energy, in my area, $642; Energex, $567; and Endeavour Energy, $576.

Yet the energy minister keeps saying that more renewables mean cheaper electricity. What he fails to realise is that levelised costs of energy, which GenCost and CSIRO use, and which the ISP is based on, do not reflect the full cost of the system. The system delivers you electricity, not the generators. That is the standalone measure. You have to have a levelised full-system cost, including the true cost of integration and batteries and storage.

Grid expansion is not factored in accurately. They have just approved, by bypassing the national electricity regulations, $9 billion of grid expansion. The Australian Energy Regulator and AEMO will be responsible as they over-build unnecessary grids, destroy our grid stability and destroy the environment by building all these unnecessary wind farms, solar farms and grids across the country.