Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Duniam for his question, and I know his strong interest in relation to the cost of living pressures that many Australians face and that many Australian businesses face, including in his home state of Tasmania, in terms of accessing secure, affordable and reliable energy. The Turnbull government is taking unprecedented action right across every factor of the energy supply chain to drive down prices. Across networks, across generation and across retailers, we are delivering the action that will put downward pressure on power prices.

In relation to networks, which account for around 50 per cent of energy bills in Australia, we have legislation in the parliament being debated today to abolish the ability of networks to game the system through the limited merits review process, which to date is estimated to have cost consumers around $6.5 billion. That is $6.5 billion on power bills around the country that can or should have been avoided, and our reforms will make sure that that system works far more effectively in terms of the network regulation in the future.

In relation to generation, which comprises around 30 per cent of household energy bills, our domestic gas security mechanism will ensure adequate supply for the domestic market and, indeed, it has already seen a fall in the spot price of gas over recent months. In the generation front, we are undertaking further investment such as that in the Snowy 2.0 scheme, which will see around 350 gigawatt hours of energy delivered—enough to power at full capacity for more than seven days.

Senator Wong interjecting—

That's far more, Senator Wong, than any of Jay Weatherill's diesel generators can generate! We are putting real pressure on the retail component—12 per cent of the bills: action to ensure consumers in every household across Australia can manage to get the best deal on their retail price in the future. (Time expired)