Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Before I commence, I would like to clarify that this is not my first speech. The Senate is debating today the very important issue of the need to reduce electricity prices. That is something that I expect everybody in this chamber agrees on, but the key point is how we reduce electricity prices—and we certainly don't do it by sloganeering and we certainly don't do it with the economically illiterate arguments that we've heard from some in contributions to the debate thus far. The simple fact is that the people of Australia, including the people of Queensland, my home state, are being ripped off—they are being ripped off by massive corporations like Origin and AGL in my own state of Queensland, and they are being ripped off by the two establishment parties that have put in place the energy and electricity regimes across the states that have led to massive price gouging, that have led to these price rises and that have led not just to increased costs for manufacturing, which is referred to in the proposal before us today, but also to increased costs for households.

Let's not forget that in the last financial year the state government of Queensland made $3 billion from the profits made by state-owned energy corporations, straight out of the pockets of Queensland households. Leading into the state election—we released our policies on this two months ago—the Greens are proposing to put that money straight back into the pockets of Queenslanders. Origin and AGL made $7.2 billion in profits. Those are profits for corporations, and that is profits being put before people. That is the energy regime that has been put in place by Labor and the LNP over successive governments in my home state of Queensland over the last decade. Since Queensland Labor privatised electricity retail in 2006, prices have doubled. Retail charges are now 35 per cent of power bills. The Greens' approach is to roll back Labor's privatisation, to end that price gouging, and to invest in renewable energy.

We hear the economically illiterate and ludicrous approach that we need to build new coal-fired power stations in northern parts of Queensland, which will take 10 years to build—as though that will somehow make energy cheaper rather than more expensive. I had an email from a constituent from Gladstone today. Gladstone, as some may know, has the largest power station in my state of Queensland. It has almost unlimited amounts of gas, if they wanted to tap into it, going through the port of Gladstone and yet the prices are sky-high. It is simply a factor of the privatised, corporatised electricity generation, distribution and marketing regime that has been put in place by Labor and LNP governments following the bidding of their corporate donors. That is what we need to reverse and that is the thing that will reduce electricity prices by substantial amounts, not just for a year or two by way of a subsidy but for year after year after year by reversing the privatisation that occurred before, legislating to make reliable, affordable energy for all Queenslanders something that the government is required to provide. That is what we need to do and that is the approach the Greens have put forward for the Queensland state election. Independent economists, independent energy experts who have examined the Greens' policies, agree that that would lead to savings of at least $600 a year for each and every Queensland household. If we scrapped private electricity retailers and created a single public retailer with a legal mandate to provide affordable and reliable electricity to all Queenslanders, they would each save $600 a year on their electricity bill.

The same sorts of savings would apply to manufacturers in Queensland as well. The jobs would flow on from that. Investing in renewable energy would create over 5,000 jobs a year every year for five years. The Liberal and Labor parties in Queensland want to create a ridiculous, unsustainable mine that would deliver maybe 1,500 jobs and would take all of the investment money that could otherwise be put into renewable energy that would generate over 5,000 jobs year after year after year and create cheaper electricity along the way. They are the visions and the policies that the Greens are putting forward in the state election in Queensland and that is the guaranteed way to get cheaper electricity for all people across this country.