Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Labor's energy policy is driving prices up and reliability down. The Australian Energy Market Operator revealed that gas generators might need to run on diesel to keep the power grid running and the lights on due to the looming catastrophic gas supply shortfall. This will add unnecessary costs to households and big users and will hinder efforts to curtail carbon dioxide emissions. Why are Australian families facing higher prices and fewer choices because of this government's failed energy policies?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. He talked about the Australian Energy Regulator and the Australian Energy Market Operator's Gas Statement of Opportunities last week. I'm not sure that he had actually read the Gas Statement of Opportunities because, if he had, he might have framed the question differently. Every Gas Statement of Opportunities since 2013 has warned of shortfalls—all of them. Every single one in every single year warned of a shortfall, from 2013 to 2022.

The difference is that last week's Gas Statement of Opportunities made the point that actions of this government had seen that shortfall move to the outyears because of the Mandatory Gas Code of Conduct that has been put in place by this government. There was a vote on the gas code of conduct in the other house. The Greens moved the disallowance of the gas code of conduct, as is their wont. I didn't understand why, because the gas code of conduct actually requires new supply to be made domestic, not international. But the Greens moved that. They had support from Pauline Hanson's One Nation and Senator Babet from the Palmer United Party, a coalition of some interesting persuasions there, but they had that support. They also had Senator Canavan turn up and vote for that disallowance and the rest of the Liberal Party and the National Party stayed in their offices because they didn't want to support the gas code of conduct.

The fact of the matter is that the gas code of conduct, like other policies that we've put in place—the Minister for Resources, the Minister for Industry and Science, the Treasurer and I, with the Prime Minister—have actually been dealing with the situation of gas shortages that those opposite were warned about. They promised a gas led recovery and all they did was gaslight the Australian people for nine years!