Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I spoke here briefly on the topic of household bills in my electorate of Brisbane, and I noted how, in Brisbane, everyone's water bills are much higher as a result of Labor's incompetence when it comes to planning and delivery. The costs of that desal plant and the recycled water scheme, which were built in a Labor panic after years of a complete lack of planning, effectively doubled the cost of water in South-East Queensland. Brisbane residents and businesses are now paying the cost of that every quarter.

It's a similar story when it comes to electricity bills. Labor governments in the past have had targets—they've had good intentions—but have had no real detailed plans behind them. Labor have demonstrated incompetence in their delivery. They've set targets without any idea about what would happen on the road towards trying to achieve those targets. They didn't plan for storage. They didn't plan for dispatchability. They didn't plan for how the transition would actually take place month-to-month, year-to-year. Labor's lack of planning is costing Brisbane households and businesses every quarter. The cost of electricity effectively doubled under those Labor years. It went up by 94 per cent during that period.

You can compare that to how, last week, the Prime Minister very decisively called the country's electricity retailers to Canberra to ensure that more households and small businesses get put on better plans with lower prices. The government is obviously taking action to redivert some of our abundant gas supplies back to meet our own country's needs. That's already bringing down the price of gas and, therefore, the price of electricity right now. We're already implementing many of the recommendations from the recent Finkel report, focusing on the engineering and economic solutions we need to help guarantee the reliability and security of our electricity supply. This government's also removing the ability of energy companies to use merits review—lawfare, effectively—in tribunals to undermine the pricing decisions of the regulator. We're continuing to invest significant amounts right now in R&D so that emerging technologies can continue to come quickly down that cost curve and become financially viable alternatives. Of course, when it comes to the longer term, this government is building the biggest new addition to storage and generation capacity we've seen in Australia for a very long time: Snowy Hydro 2.0.

The energy debate is not about ideology; it's about having a plan and having competence in delivering that plan. When people in Brisbane look at their next water bill, they should remember that half of that bill is about repaying Labor's planning mistakes, like the desal plant and the recycled water scheme. And, when they look at their next electricity bill, they should remember that half that bill is repaying Labor's mistakes—caused by Labor not having a plan and the incompetent delivery of Labor's targets. This government has a plan for energy prices, and we're getting on with the job.