Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Hansard source

What are the most terrifying words in the English language? I'll tell you: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' They're terrifying, as President Reagan once said. He could easily have been speaking about the Labor Party's plan to cap energy prices, as well as all the other increased regulation they want to implement in the sector. This is a government solution almost guaranteed to worsen the very problem it purports to solve, as was observed in the sixties and seventies with the fuel price caps. I don't know if anyone recalls that—you are all a bit too young in here—but, if you do, there you go.

The United Australia Party, of course, stands with consumers and business owners who are bearing the brunt of skyrocketing energy prices and, of course, we want to see prices come down. We wholeheartedly support the $1.5 billion of temporary bill relief measures for those in need but we do not support the price caps or any increased regulations in the sector.

High energy prices are not simply the result of a war on the other side of this planet, like the Labor Party would have us believe. They are a product of self-inflicted, systematic deterioration of our energy sector over many, many years. It is actually hard to see how the Labor Party's naive market intervention will make any real-world difference whatsoever. The government's proposal has already created enormous uncertainty in the market, as we all know. It will almost certainly cause energy investment to constrict, which will limit gas supply even further, making energy shortages more likely to occur. For what exactly? Prices are still predicted to rise in the next two years, by the government's own account, by many, many hundreds of dollars.

The long-term solution, and there is a long-term solution, to higher power prices is not more government intervention in the market. That's ridiculous. It is not billions of dollars in tax subsidies or anything else. The long-term solution to high energy prices is greater supply. It's basic high school economics. I learnt that in year 8. We must also get rid of red and green tape.