Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I would have thought the member for Port Adelaide would know better. I would have thought that he would have looked in his own backyard in South Australia and understood what a bad energy policy looks like. And it is spelt Labor—L A B O R.

The member for Swan, the member for Boothby, the member for Maranoa, the member for Goldstein, the member for North Sydney, the member for Hume, the member for Grey, the member for Bennelong—they are in this chamber because they care about good energy policy. And good energy policy depends on a technology-neutral approach. Good energy policy places a premium on energy affordability. Good energy policy places a premium on energy stability and reliability, and good energy policy is consistent with our international agreements, which we take seriously.

In South Australia, in the member for Port Adelaide's own electorate, Adelaide Brighton—450 workers—lost its power for 36 hours. The CEO of Adelaide Brighton said, 'Can't I just expect to be able to keep the lights on so that I can run my own business?' And so did other businesses: BHP at Olympic Dam; Arrium steelworks at Whyalla; and the Nyrstar smelter at Port Pirie. Like the fishermen at Port Lincoln, the cafe owners in Mount Barker and the small businesses in Stirling—right across South Australia—they expect that the lights stay on and that the prices are affordable.

But unfortunately the ideological approach, which is: put renewables first, second and third, without the necessary backup, without the necessary storage, without taking into account the frequency control and ancillary services, the stability and the inertia that you need when you take out synchronous generation from the mix—that is what Jay Weatherill's big experiment looked like. Unfortunately the member for Port Adelaide described 1.7 million people losing their power and $500-plus million lost to his state as 'a hiccup'. The member for Port Adelaide should come into this chamber and apologise to his fellow South Australians. Today in question time, we also found out that the member for Port Adelaide went on the Insiders show in May this year and was asked directly, 'What did you know when you were in government about the LNG export industry and its impact on domestic gas prices and shortfall?' He said: 'We didn't get any advice. We didn't know.' Well, today in question time we found a smoking gun—or maybe even a bazooka!—and it showed that the Australian Energy Market Operator's report in 2012 warned of shortfalls under the heading 'LNG export market'. Then we found, even more embarrassingly—

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