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

No, Senator Carr, I can't confirm that, nor am I familiar with the observations of the CEO of BlueScope Steel. What I can tell you, Senator Carr, is this: if the Labor Party were in power, electricity prices—both domestic prices and wholesale prices to industry—would be much higher than they are at the moment because, as Senator Cormann reminds me, among many other things, we would have a carbon tax. We would have the carbon tax that the former Labor Prime Minister, Ms Gillard, promised never to introduce and then, in flagrant breach of an election promise, did introduce. It caused the biggest single spike in electricity prices in modern history. That was your legacy, Senator Carr. As I said in response to your colleague Senator Moore, we won't be taking advice or instruction from, of all people, the Labor Party about how to keep electricity prices low, particularly since on your watch we had the fastest rate of growth of electricity prices in modern history, not just because of the carbon tax but significantly because of the carbon tax.

That is why, Senator Carr, the government—the Prime Minister and Mr Frydenberg in particular—are focused, as I said before, on the twin objectives of keeping electricity prices lower than they otherwise would be and ensuring reliability of supply. We will be adopting a suite of policies that are entirely configured to securing those two objectives. Senator Carr, unlike you, we're not driven by ideology. Unlike you, we're not driven by a political imperative to outcompete the Greens. Unlike you, nor are we economically incompetent. We understand that you need policies that will encourage the market to deliver electricity prices at their most affordable level while ensuring reliability and supply, and that is what we're going to do.