Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

that they will be able to reference $275 in what they say today. Are we on track to it? Is it still a promise? Is it still government policy? Let's see. While I take the minister's interjection a little earlier on, saying the deal between the Greens and the Labor Party isn't secret, I'm really looking forward to seeing the ins and outs of the details of what exactly has been agreed to here. It's going to be very, very important to this debate.

The big losers out of this, though, are going to be Australians, with households already struggling to make ends meet and businesses becoming uncompetitive. If I can refer to a couple of the criticisms that have been levelled at this from people who actually know what they're talking about. Even for those people who may not want to trust politicians and take them at their word, let's listen to some of the comments that have been made. David Maxwell, the CEO of east coast gas producer, Cooper Energy, said on 11 December this year: 'In my 30-plus years in management roles in the gas industry, I've never seen such destructive legislation.' ExxonMobil slammed the move as reckless free-market intervention and said the rushed and ill-considered policy would inevitably risk gas shortages. Credit Suisse's Saul Kavonic said: 'The damage has already started. Nearly all gas contracting has shrivelled up in the last few days.' And energy market analyst Mark Samter said: 'This is the single worst piece of energy policy I've seen anywhere in the world in almost 20 years of looking at global energy markets.' They are pretty damning pieces of feedback from people who seem to know what they're talking about.

The sad thing is, though, that the government just dismisses these criticisms as people clinging onto profits. Well, again, the real test in this is going to be whether what they do today brings down power prices. That's where it's going to be at, and that's what we need to be focusing on. They have ignored economics 101, ignored the law of supply and demand, provided unprecedented powers to control the Australian energy sector and delegated powers to the Treasurer to make broad-ranging regulations. All of these things we've had just a handful of hours to consider, and by 4.30 today it will have passed the Australian parliament, with the support of the Australian Greens, and Australian households and Australian businesses are all going to be worse off.

I repeat: the test will be that the next time you get home and you open your bill at your kitchen table, your power prices need to be lower. If they're lower, they've done the right thing. But I'm taking a bet here: they won't be lower; they will be higher. This bill will not do what the government has said it will do, and the losers will be the Australian public, Australian businesses and this country as a whole. It is a broken promise again, just like the last time.