Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Under the Albanese government all aspects of energy generation are off track, with Labor's target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 way behind schedule and running at less than one-third of the pace required last year, while gas prices are spiking following the energy regulator's risk notice warning of gas shortages impacting Australians right throughout winter. This is the matter that we are considering right now and that I bring before the Senate for consideration. This is an urgent matter because Australians are facing higher prices and we have an energy grid that is at risk of failure.

Yesterday in question time the Prime Minister refused to be upfront with the Australian people in relation to the costs of Labor's renewable-only rollout and, here in the Senate, Senator Wong and Minister Gallagher were no better. We asked genuine questions, questions that deserved answers, and we got nothing. They avoided answering the questions, particularly when it came to the cost of their program and the cost of their rollout. We know that it is unaffordable and that those costs are being passed on to the Australian consumer, to energy users across the country. It doesn't matter whether it's a household or a business. If it's a business, those costs are passed on to every single Australian. When asked a very simple, straightforward question, the government did what they always do. They avoided responsibility and blamed the opposition. You would think that for a simple question like, 'What is the total system cost of achieving the Anthony Albanese Labor government's 82 per cent renewable energy target by 2030?' you would get a simple answer. It's a simple question; we should get a straightforward answer. But we didn't. The Australian people deserve better. They should be getting straightforward answers, but they're not.

Princeton University senior research scientist Dr Chris Greig had a simple, straightforward answer. He estimated in his report that the capital cost of the energy transition following a similar pathway to the government's current plan would be between $1.3 trillion and $1.5 trillion. This is from a senior research scientist at Princeton University. This is serious. It's not a flimsy report. It's not someone you should not take seriously; this is someone who should be taken seriously—a cost of $1.3 to $1.5 trillion. And, as I said, those costs simply get passed on to Australian consumers. That's why Australians are paying more.

The Albanese government and Mr Albanese himself took to the last election a promise that energy bills would be reduced by $275. He said it nearly 100 times throughout the election campaign. But have you seen that reduction? Of course you haven't. In fact, we've seen energy bills go up in some markets by over $1,000. Now they've put in some subsidies that can be applied to your bill, but that's not the long-term structural change that is needed.

Mr Dutton has a plan that he's put forward to see energy prices reduce. We're not going to rush to see coal and coal-fired power stations removed from the market. We're not going to rush to see this transition to a renewables-only approach. No: we want to see a balanced approach, particularly where gas becomes a dominant generator of electricity. But we need to have exploration. We need to have new gasfields, particularly here on the east coast. AEMO have said we'll be in some serious trouble if new gas is not provided into the market. If the winter continues to be as cold as it's been, we're going to see a reduction and we're possibly even going to see a limitation of power in this market. This is of great concern to Australians.

This government is off track. In fact, it's worse than that: the train has not even left the station. They're hopeless. Bring on the election as soon as we can so we can deal with this lot over here.