Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What Australians want is lower electricity prices, and what we are seeing on the other side is hopeless, deeply divided government and chaotic energy policy. We know that the chair of the Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott, has said, 'there would be absolutely no way that anybody would be financing a new coal-fired generation plant'. Because of this policy uncertainty on the other side, there is no new capacity coming into the system. Because of the uncertainty, business will not invest under the current arrangements. This government, over the past five years, has been at war with itself on energy policy. In that environment, business would have to be crazy to invest long term in coal-fired generation. Because of that lack of new generation capacity coming into the system, we are seeing energy prices go up. It's the economic argument that Senator Cormann got so wrong in question time today.

We are seeing a hopelessly divided government. The Prime Minister used to believe in addressing climate change, but somehow, along the way, he has turned his back on the environment. Former Prime Minister Abbott has trashed energy policy in Australia. He is the great wrecker of Australian politics. He has abolished Labor's work, and the Turnbull government has for five years now failed to provide policy certainty. Through the chaos and infighting, those opposite are now failing to deliver. We know that business needs certainty and the sector needs certainty, and the Liberals and the Nationals can't lift business investment, particularly in energy.

This policy that we're debating is a Frankenstein policy; it is a political fix to keep the coalition party room together. We know that significant parts of the coalition party room deny climate change. We can't even have a sensible policy discussion when climate change isn't seriously on the table. In question time today, the government claimed that $550 on average is going to be taken out of the energy costs of the average consumer. What the government did not say, as part of all that, is that $400 of that $550 saving actually comes from the good work that Labor did in our last couple of years of government, with our Renewable Energy Target, which has driven waves of investment in wind and solar. We are seeing that coming through. So the NEG, in its current form, would only provide a saving of about $150 a year for consumers. We also know that it will basically drive no new investment in renewable energy.

This policy totally lacks ambition. We know that 24 per cent in reductions will happen by 2020-21, so, of the 26 per cent, there will only be a two per cent reduction over the remaining period of the NEG. We on this side have ambition: a 45 per cent emissions reduction target on 2007 levels by 2030 and 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030. We've even seen the backbench talking with the Prime Minister about underwriting baseload coal generation. But we know, as I said earlier, business will not invest in coal. The future is in gas, hydro, solar and other renewables. This is where business wants to invest, and the government should be encouraging that.

If the government wants to look for a role model, look at the Queensland Labor government, with a 50 per cent renewable energy target. There are great things happening in the Sunshine State. In recent times, I visited Gladstone and went to a couple of new solar farms that are in the process of being constructed—the Renew Estate solar farm at Bororen, south of Gladstone, and the Acciona solar farm, which is part of the Gladstone State Development Area, in Aldoga. There is a place for coal along with renewables as we transition, and Gladstone is an excellent example of this.

Labor has a strong record on protecting the environment and addressing climate change. We want to work constructively on addressing energy at the state and federal levels. Let's put the politics aside and get some certainty. We know that this is what businesses want. They are crying out for the certainty to get the long-term investment that's needed to get prices down. It's only Labor's energy policies that will get business investment flowing to provide power bill relief to struggling households.