Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

It is really something, isn't it, to be lectured to by the National Party, of all of the parties in this chamber, about division? It's peak Senate; we should probably offer Senator McDonald an extension of time to talk about this more, because this is the group of people who could have done something about this—or any number of things—in the nine years that they were part of the government. But they didn't use their nine years for that, did they? They actually just spent most of their time in government bickering with one another about who was going to get to be the DPM. That was their big priority: working out who was going to get the big position. They didn't pay attention to the very significant policy issues that required the attention of the government and that required the attention of the National Party—and that the regions would have appreciated, had they been dealt with. They didn't do any of those things; they just fought amongst themselves about who was going to be the Deputy Prime Minister.

The truth is that energy prices are of course a very real challenge for our economy. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years, and that is a direct result of Russia's illegal and prolonged attack on Ukraine. The IEA said this about it:

Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come.

So if we think about the context that we're dealing with, it's a pretty sad reflection on the opposition that their choice is to come in here and make a pretty narrow partisan and political point. Exactly: there is a national interest to be dealt with here and it needs to be taken seriously. Australian households, businesses and industries are grappling with the impact of this, and responding to it is made all the more difficult because of the chaos and dysfunction that afflicted the last government—particularly on the question of energy policy.

Since coming to government, we have been taking steps to remedy that. In the first days after the Albanese Labor government ministry was sworn in, we had to deal with a very significant crisis emerging in the energy market—in the electricity market. That was successfully navigated in a collaborative and orderly way, using the institutions of the market and by working with colleagues in the states and territories. We have since had to deal with the gas supply issue—which, again, we have dealt with in orderly and collaborative way. And now we are dealing with pricing.

The truth is that Senator McDonald likes to talk about their legacy on gas, but the Morrison government's gas fired recovery failed to get more gas into the system. It was all talk and no action. They said that they'd enforce 'use it or lose it' conditions on gas licenses and that actually didn't happen. They said they'd develop a gas reservation scheme and that didn't happen. They said they'd avoid a shortfall in the domestic gas market, with new agreements with the three east coast LNG exporters, but they didn't bother to extend the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism or the heads of agreement before the last election. It was a lot of talk and not much delivery.

We understand that this matters for Australians and we're taking prudent, responsible and careful action to reduce energy price pressures on Australian households and on Australian industry, without undermining investment. As the IEA points out—and almost any other serious commentator—these are extraordinary times. Energy markets around the world are being reshaped, and the government is working on options to bring prices down. Greater transparency in the market is urgently needed, and the solutions lie not just in one place—there is no silver bullet—they lie across the energy supply chain. So the ACCC is advising the Treasurer on how the gas industry's voluntary code of conduct is operating and how to ensure reasonable pricing. As the Treasurer has said, our first preference is not a tax outcome here; our first preference is a regulatory outcome. But it makes sense to leave other options on the table until we conclude a view; it's not wise to rule other options out.

The budget contains $67 million to modernise energy market regulation and to increase the ACCC's scrutiny of gas markets. Any additional action that we take on energy prices will be balanced against the need to maintain investment confidence and to support Australian industry and households.