Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a servant to the many varied and hardworking people in our Queensland community, I'm happy to travel back to Canberra for this session, while recognising that, due to yet another Labor-Greens-Teal-coalition rushed bill, many senators cannot. I have submitted a document discovery today to find out exactly how much taxpayers' money is being wasted on this disgusting spectacle. It would have been wise for the government to work out what we were returning for prior to recalling the Senate instead of this chaos to get a bill ready at 9.30 pm last night, and I read it on the plane down. With no committee oversight, no public scrutiny, no industry scrutiny, this is a shocking bill being rammed through, courtesy of the ALP, Greens, Teals and Senator Pocock, in a single day, in hours, in return for quid pro quos next year.

There is a point where the process this government uses to get Greens', Teals' and Senator Pocock's support that moves past what is proper into very questionable territory. Under this bill the gas industry is being murdered for the financial benefit of rival industries—wind and solar—which are financial supporters of the Greens' and Teals' Senator Pocock. It should be clear now, surely, that the Labor Albanese government are not the ones running this country. In the Senate, the Greens-Labor-Teal-Pocock alliance together run the government.

I am sure the Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022 has been met with popping champagne corks from comrades on the Labor left; Soviet style powers in the government's graft right now. The government regulation will decree what gas can be sold, to whom it can be sold, for how much it can be sold, who can be refused permission to buy or sell, and who can be forced to buy or sell. The Greens and Teals can't wait to write those regulations, a frightening power grab from a desperate government without a clue how to solve the energy crisis it helped to create and now worsen. What industry will be next?

Don't be fooled by this talk of temporary price caps; this legislation includes a code of conduct with permanent price controls built in. How much will that ongoing cap be? This is done through legislative instrument, so, whatever the cap is, the commissar—sorry, the minister—can change it at the stroke of a pen with no appeal mechanism. Make no mistake, if this bill is passed , those regulations will escalate in lock step with the government's desperation to control runaway energy inflation caused by escalating power shortages.

Under the Liberal-National government, tens of billions of dollars in direct subsidies have been poured into unreliable wind and solar. These are incapable of supplying baseload power at any affordable price. Because the market has not closed hydro carbon power down as fast as climate bedwetters want, coal-fired power stations are now being threatened with closure using state government powers. This is what is known in finance circles as political risk. As the supply of electricity becomes less reliable, afternoon price spikes are becoming common, and everyone's power bill goes up. There is a lesson here: intervening in energy markets to push a political ideology has unintended consequences.

With this legislation, Australia is preparing to take our place alongside the Weimar Republic, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Venezuela on the list of governments who ignored and, as a result, destroyed their economies. Venezuela should be a lesson for Australia. Socialist President Maduro spent his first term in 2012 spending every cent the government earned from oil experts. Windfall revenue was spent on programs that sounded good on social media yet proved unsustainable. Australia is spending every cent we earn from coal, gas and mineral exports, just like Venezuela did. When the oil boom ended, Maduro started printing money to keep wasteful government spending going. Australia over the past three years printed $500 billion using electronic journal entries. Maduro's 'print and spend' caused prices to double each week, and Maduro responded with price controls. Australia's inflation rate is at a 30-year high—nothing like Venezuela's, and yet we have price controls being introduced with this bill. Price controls cover up the problem. They never solve it. They make it worse. To take such an authoritarian measure is an indication that something has this government and the premiers spooked—likely the real inflation rate that will result from net zero measures. Time will tell. The way in which a Western country like Venezuela lost control of their economy should be a warning to Australia. For three years, 'print and spend' measures have been waved through on Liberal, Nationals, Greens, Labor and, now, teals uni-party voices.

Labor did not inherit Scott Morrison's mess; Labor in the states were part of Scott Morrison's mess. Whether our inflation rate from this point forward moves up or down is squarely in the government's hands. A small number of people in the government think that they are smarter than the free market—the collective will and ideas and hearts of millions of people. The same free market has, for generations, successfully combined hundreds of thousands of workers with hundreds of billions of dollars of capital equipment in order to successfully manage trillions of dollars in minerals resources for the lowest cost to the customer. Now, though, our federal and state Labor governments, together with the fake Christian, fake conservative New South Wales government of Matt Kean and Dom Perrottet, think this piece of legislation will fix what they broke. Rubbish! So much hubris combined with so little knowledge of history and economics will be the downfall of our beautiful country. Venezuela, here we come.

In six months, the Albanese government has steered Australia from welfare liberalism to socialism. The next port of call will be statism, before Labor reach their ultimate destination: communism—and we will go back to feudalism. I notice some commentators have been calling for the government to penalty-tax the very high profits being experienced in the mineral industry in recent years. Instead of making money for taxpayers, the Prime Minister decided instead to just destroy those profits so that shareholders don't get them, the taxman doesn't get them, nobody gets them—and the taxpayers are paying $1.5 billion a year in borrowed subsidies from our debt-financed budget. One point five billion dollars over two years is only one per cent of the household and small-business electricity market. This measure is more public relations than realistic assistance.

One Nation will not be wedged on this payment. Borrowing money from Australians to give back to Australians is a pointless exercise. It literally transfers money from children to their parents, and responsible parents do not fall for this rubbish. It is a sugar hit that takes attention away from why electricity prices are so high. Rising electricity prices come from several different aspects of the government's net zero transition, which, for clarity, is a transition away from cheap and reliable coal baseload power to fairytale, nature-dependent solar and wind power. Treasury are projecting electricity prices will rise 36 per cent next year. If passed, this bill will reduce that rise by 6.5 per cent, and, if the states cap the coal price, this will save another 6.5 per cent. In any event, electricity is still going up next year. Households can expect a rise of $420, using the government's own sums, a rise of 23 per cent—almost a quarter higher. When these measures fail—and they will—the rise will be $650. Today I submitted a motion for a document discovery on the modelling claiming the increase will be 23 per cent, not 36 per cent, including the element of any electricity price rise caused as a result of the Ukraine war. I look forward to seeing this modelling.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022 deals with gas only. The Albanese government has dumped the coal price ceiling onto the states to avoid having to pay compensation. John Howard's government pulled that same bypass around the Constitution when he took property rights away from farmers to meet the UN Kyoto targets, without paying a cent of compensation to farmers. The Albanese government has joined John Howard's government in destroying trust in government, with the result that government must now apply more and more coercive measures to govern.

Australia's gas price has been a problem since the end of 2020. The Australian Energy Regulator, the government agency itself, confirms that rising gas prices started more than a full year before Russia invaded Ukraine. Treasury and the government's spin doctors blaming Russia for electricity price rises is dishonest. It is deceitful. Gas and coal price rises have resulted from the need to back up unreliable wind and solar with gas, combined with colder temperatures and a wind drought across Western Europe, at the same time the idiots in power in Western Europe closed their coal and nuclear plants. Gas became the only thing keeping the lights on. Dishonestly blaming Russia instead of the correct cause, net-zero energy deficits, will lead Australia down the same dishonest, inhuman path as Europe.

This bill quite simply fixes the wrong problem. The war on coal has meant Australia cannot meet the world demand for coal, and as a result prices are high and market demand has switched to gas, whose prices are now going up. Australia has a coal and gas supply problem, not a price problem. Australia must take the jackboot off the coal and gas industries and allow more production. Rather than imposing old Soviet style controls on the gas industry under this bill, the federal government could have gone with a much simpler and less onerous option.

Western Australia has had a domestic gas reservation since 2006. This requires gas extractors to reserve 15 per cent of production for Australian domestic use. This scheme has produced a gas price around $5 a gigajoule, which is production cost plus a fair profit. Prime Minister Albanese could have used this system on a national level. He chose not to. Instead the Prime Minister has gone with old Soviet style legislation that will cost Australians twice as much for gas as a reservation system would have cost. Why would they do that, unless the reason for the legislation is not the price cap and is instead this bill's industry control powers? In two or three years time the public will be marching on Parliament House to protest electricity bills that will be so out of control that power companies will be disconnecting people left, right and centre. Once the serious protests start, this government will reach for the permanent price controls in this bill to force coal and gas extractors to sell to electricity generators at next to nothing just to save themselves.

There is a showdown coming in this place. This morning Adam Bandt confirmed that the Greens and teals are committed to eliminating the gas industry. Hydrocarbons have lifted Australia and the world out of poverty. The Greens will cast our beautiful nation back to the Dark Ages. Gas is essential for firming solar and wind, which means gas and coal are the only things keeping our lights on, our fridges running, industry functioning and electric vehicles running. Without gas and coal, the economy will be entirely reliant on nature-dependent solar and wind power and battery backups that carry a price tag above $100 billion and require renewal every 10 years. Green energy is no energy. Eliminating gas and coal is insanity.

The Albanese government's proposal for a coal price cap will not reduce electricity bills and likely will increase them. Coal plants buy coal on long-term supply contracts. The cost they are paying is not the spot price; it is much, much less. The cap of $125 a tonne is above the current contract supply price currently being paid at coal-fired power stations in Australia, of $80 to $100 a tonne. It is likely that suppliers will increase their supply price of coal to $125, knowing that's the safe limit. A coal price rise is the most likely outcome from these measures. A 6½ per cent fall is technically impossible.

Let me tell you why. For the sake of the government argument, let's assume the price of coal in 2023 would have been $175 and is now $125 as a result of the cap. Let's have a quick look at the effect of that $50-a-tonne reduction. The energy density of coal is high, 6.7 kilowatt hours per kilo, which means one tonne of coal produces 6.7 megawatt hours of electricity. That's enough to run 1,600 homes in Queensland for a day. So, with a $50 saving divided by 1,600 homes, at the most simple level of analysis this measure will save householders 3c a day on their electricity bill, not 6½ per cent, which is $110 a year, because coal fuel costs are a tiny portion of the coal-fired electricity price. The government's measures are being sold with a deceitful public relations spin hiding onerous Soviet style controls that are the real reason for this legislation. There's another serious risk to our energy security this bill ignores: rising interest rates. But I won't go into that in detail.

There is an entirely better way, even to the global warming believers, One Nation's plan can deliver cheap, stable baseload power without upsetting your sky god of warming. All we have to do is stop closing coal-fired power stations, build Collinsville Power Station and replace Liddell with modern HELE power and transition Australia's coal generators to modern HELE power. Transitioning to clean coal and ending government handouts for renewable, fairytale solar and wind power will dramatically reduce electricity bills. It's time to walk away from this net zero dumpster fire.

I call on the Senate to reject this bill and say no to Soviet-level powers that will inevitably backfire and cause an economic and social catastrophe that will hurt the people. One Nation has been right to oppose net zero madness for 25 years. We will continue to be a voice of reason, bringing better solutions to this parliament—solutions that will provide everyday Australians and the businesses we all rely on with opportunity and prosperity for all. We have one flag above this parliament; we are one community; we are one nation.