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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to energy.

I would like to clarify a couple of points in an answer given in this chamber today to a question I asked about rising electricity costs. I don't think the Labor Party know what they are talking about. When the Australian Energy Market say that wind and solar are cheaper than gas and coal that may be the case. But it is the intermittency that happens that makes your prices go up. When you haven't got the wind blowing and you haven't got solar at night, you actually have to use coal or gas to give us the electricity that we need, and then your prices go up.

Another thing is when you talk about the war in Ukraine and say that is why the prices are going up and we have international trade agreements, but the fact is that we don't trade in wind and solar. They're a big part of the electricity that is supplied in the country, and then they will go to gas. What happens with gas is that the gas is brought on the international spot market. The gas operators had the opportunity to lock it in to a set price, but they didn't, and that is why it is on the spot market. In contrast, coal prices are set on long-term contracts, which has nothing to do with Ukraine, so Ukraine has nothing to do with this at all. Coal is locked into long-term contracts.

The thing is that, when you are in South Australia, they rely on the wind, the solar and also the gas, so when it goes on the five-minute spot market this is the real problem. Electricity rates are the most expensive generator of electricity prices, so wind and solar might come in and gas might supply two per cent of that. But they price themselves at the very last minute on the spot market. That sends up the price, and wind and solar get paid the same price as gas. That is why your electricity prices are actually skyrocketing, and you want to boast that it is coming down. It's not coming down, and I don't think you really know what you're talking about.

Question agreed to.