Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Singh for that question. I'm pleased that Labor has started this question time by asking a policy question, which is a very good development indeed. I can confirm for Senator Singh that, yes, our government is absolutely committed to bringing power prices down and ensuring that electricity supplies are reliable and to doing so in a way that is as environmentally efficient as possible.

As part of an overall package of measures—as part of a comprehensive plan—we do have a last-resort measure as part of our suite of measures, which has been colloquially described as the 'big stick'. The big-stick legislation has been approved by our party room, and I'm pleased to confirm what it does. The bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to provide a legislative framework to strengthen the government's ability to address misconduct in electricity markets. Let me say that slowly: to address misconduct in electricity markets. Do you want to leave misconduct in electricity markets unaddressed? Are you against addressing misconduct in electricity markets? Is that really what you're saying?

I think once you actually understand what our legislation is doing I would not be surprised if, when all is said and done, you actually ended up voting with us in favour of it. Here's a prediction: I think we might get some bipartisan support, because I think that Bill Shorten will not want to be left out when it comes to the big stick—I'm very, very confident of that—although, everybody will know it's a coalition big stick, even if the Labor Party gets on board, to bring electricity prices down and to ensure that we've got reliable supplies of energy. The bill creates new prohibitions against certain— (Time expired)