Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

This is an incredibly important topic and I thank Senator O'Sullivan for bringing this matter to the Senate for debate. Despite the government coming to the last election promising a reduction in power prices, Australian consumers—whether they be households or businesses—have seen nothing but skyrocketing prices. There are jobs and businesses leaving our shores because they can no longer afford the cost of doing business in this country. I'm not just telling you that; we're seeing it from public companies who are making those announcements; we're seeing an increase in the number of businesses that are struggling and in liquidation numbers; and we're seeing it with the number of businesses and households that are just saying they can't afford these bills.

Of course, it started in Queensland, the state that had the lowest energy prices thanks to the introduction of coal-fired power stations a long time ago, when the Labor government of the day introduced a 45c-per-kilowatt subsidy for putting solar panels on your roof. Every public servant in town who heard about it had them on their roof. That was terrific. A lot of farmers put them out in their fields. But what it did is increase a billion dollars a year to the costs in Queensland. That had already started happening. We've seen more renewables rolled out, but what we've also seen is increasing prices.

It is time that the government came clean that every time they say renewables are the cheapest source of electricity, that is a lie, because they never factor in transmission lines. They never factor in the terrible price to communities. When I was in Rockhampton the other day, I had landholders telling me of the confidentiality agreements they have to sign with offshore, big, international, foreign-owned wind farm proponents—the very people who will provide no manufacturing jobs in Australia because all the wind turbines are manufactured offshore, as are the solar panels. There are no manufacturing jobs here. There are no royalties coming here from electricity generation. There is no investment. Instead, it's dividing local communities into those who have—those with the wind farms on their properties—and those who have not—those living right next door but get all the downside and the impact on their roads. That is the government's mantra—to destroy regional communities without a care, apart from continuing to talk about how renewable energy will bring down prices.

More urgent is the terrible intervention into the gas market. This government, nearly two years ago, intervened in our gas market so dramatically that we have seen investment fleeing Australia. That's not just investment into big projects—it's not big business. It's into the small businesses regionally. It's into the well-paid jobs that Australians are missing out on. It's the royalties and company taxes that the Australia of the future will miss out on. This is such economic irresponsibility that it's hard to know where to begin. If you look at Australia's balance sheet, it is driven by coal, iron ore and gas, and the only thing that changes is that order. And when you start ripping the legs out from underneath gas, you tell coal that they're surplus to requirements, and who knows what's next for iron ore, what you do is damage Australia's balance sheet, future cash flow, and ability to pay for schools and roads and hospitals and all the things that we enjoy in this country. That is the direct result of this crazy mishandling of energy policy that is threatening reliability and threatening costs.

I love that every time the government talks about their payment to help with electricity bills, they are robbing Peter to pay Paul. They are putting their hand into your pocket, taking out some of your hard-earned tax dollars, and giving it back to everybody else in the community. There's no checking of whether you deserve it, whether you're struggling, or whether you're somebody who owns multiple homes. No, they're just handing it to everybody because there is no fiscal responsibility. It's just: create a problem and then rob it from Peter to pay Paul to try to solve it.

So you're absolutely right, Senator Chisholm: there is going to be a clear contrast at the next election. There's going to be a contrast between the government that is driving us up onto the rocks and a government that actually has a plan, which is in line with other major economies in the world, to reduce emissions and have reliable, affordable electricity.