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

My question is to Senator Birmingham, representing the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. I commissioned a highly respected economist, Dr Alan Moran, to review government economic and energy data and to calculate the true cost of climate policies and so-called renewable energy. He delivered his report to me last week, and a copy has been sent to every member of federal parliament, including Senator Birmingham and the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Dr Moran's work cannot be sensibly refuted since he uses the government's own data, which used to be published in a consolidated form until the cost of intermittent solar and wind energy sources became so embarrassingly and devastatingly high. Is the minister aware that the true cost of climate policies on households through electricity prices is a staggering $1,300 per household per year?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Roberts for his historic question—at least in that sense. In relation to the report by Dr Moran that Senator Roberts references, I have not seen a copy of that report. It may well have been sent to my office, and I—and I'm sure the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction—will find an opportunity to review that work at an appropriate time.

In terms of the question on the energy prices, our government is certainly determined to continue work to reduce energy prices wherever we possibly can. Since July last year, we put in place our price safety net to cap standing offer prices in the energy market. For residential customers who were on the higher standing offers before 1 July last year, they could well be better off by up to $666 per annum in New South Wales, $590 in South Australia or $725 in South-East Queensland—in Senator Roberts's home state.

These reforms are making tangible differences to household energy prices and are bringing them down. Our introduction of a reference price, requiring retailers to advertise offers in a way that is transparent and easy to compare, has, according to the ACCC, seen the cheapest market offer as at September last year—some $290 to $355 lower in New South Wales, $262 lower in South-East Queensland and $330 lower in South Australia. Indeed, as well average wholesale electricity prices in the National Electricity Market in the first quarter of this year were the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2016. Our reforms are making a difference in terms of energy prices at the wholesale level and the retail level, and we will continue to work to reduce them.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Birmingham. Before I call Senator Roberts, I ask senators to maintain silence—just until we get the volume levels right—so that we can all hear Senator Roberts ask his supplementary question.

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

Is the minister aware that the true cost of so-called climate policies and renewable energy on household electricity bills is not the 6.5 per cent that government reports; it's a whopping and devastating 39 per cent?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I said in my answer to the primary question, I've not reviewed Dr Moran's report and I'm not aware that Minister Taylor or his department have done so either. As a government our focus continues to be on getting energy prices down whilst meeting our emission reduction obligations and ensuring reliability in the energy markets. We are recording achievements across all of those three spheres in terms of meeting the emission reduction obligations and commitments that we've made as a country; improving and delivering more reliability in the energy grid, despite some of the challenges there have been previously; and, as I was outlining before, getting prices down at a wholesale level and at a retail level for households and businesses. The ABS tells us that we've seen reductions in the national average retail price over the last year. That benefits both households and businesses. The AER showed in a recent report that high standing offers have been eliminated. These tangible differences are flowing through in electricity bills for Australians. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Roberts, a final supplementary question?

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

On average your government has $8 billion of incentives each year for malinvestment in parasitic green energy projects. That results in a net loss of jobs in the economy. Analysis of Spain's experience indicates that, with every green subsidised job, 2.2 real jobs are lost. With over one million Australians losing their job and unemployment rising due to COVID-19, shouldn't the government be stimulating job creation, not job losses?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I assure Senator Roberts, as I do every member of this chamber and every Australian, that our government is working as hard as it can to create jobs to help Australia out of the economic disaster created by this pandemic. Our work in terms of supporting and sustaining jobs throughout the pandemic, through programs like JobKeeper, has been recognised as world leading. Our effort in deploying other policies, such as the home builder program, to head off potential declines in the construction industry; our effort to support the creative arts sector by attracting more production to Australia and supporting job generation and creation there; and our effort in terms of skills investment that Senator Cash is leading to make sure that Australians who may not have work at present are able to retrain for the future are all about creating jobs and helping Australians to get back into the employment market as we recover.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Birmingham.