George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased you asked me that question, because it enables me to inform the Senate that tomorrow the Prime Minister has actually summoned to Canberra the CEOs of the major energy retailers to ensure that they put in place policies and change their practices to ensure there is downward pressure on electricity prices for Australian consumers. The Turnbull government is reining in the cost of poles and wires. We're putting more gas into the system and implementing the Finkel review recommendations, all of which are designed to put downward pressure on energy prices, particularly electricity prices, and to secure, very importantly, the reliability of supply so that people in Queensland—where you and I come from, Senator Ketter—don't find themselves in the state that people in South Australia found themselves in last year as a result of the ideological policies of the state Labor government.

We know that in some states, in particular the Labor states, electricity prices have increased by up to 20 per cent. That is why the federal government is moving in to take action. Unlike the Australian Labor Party, whether it be the opposition in Canberra or Labor state governments in Queensland and South Australia—