Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I have never seen anyone so bereft of a feather to fly with than the Leader of the Opposition! He doesn't have a policy. He has nothing—just a bunch of whines and complaints. He has no plan for Australia's energy future at all, other than, if you assume that all of us intend the necessary consequence of our actions, then this is what he intends: he intends more blackouts; he intends higher prices; he intends less reliability, because that is what his policies have all delivered in the past—we don't need to theorise. We have just heard from the Energy Market Commission chairman, John Pierce—a former treasury secretary in New South Wales—that this will be a much simpler system to implement for retailers than a clean energy target, because it operates within the existing market mechanism. So, the regulator has given it a big regulatory tick.

We have just heard from Audrey Zibelman, the Australian Energy Market Operator, about how often she has to intervene in the South Australian market to force gas-fired power generators to come on stream, at the highest possible cost, at peak prices, in order to keep the lights on in Adelaide and South Australia. That is why she is advocating this reliability guarantee, which will ensure that the market will be stable and that prices will be lower.

Honourable members have asked what impact this is going to have on prices in the near term. Well, let me quote John Pierce again. John Pierce made the point that energy companies don't set their prices based on the spot price today—

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