Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry. Will the minister update the House on why an affordable and reliable energy supply is crucial to delivering the government's national defence industry policy? Are there any alternative approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. If we want to build on the 371,500 jobs that have been created by this government in the last 12 months, we need to have affordable and reliable power in this country. That is what the government is doing. That is what the government will be providing. We are not just doing it through the announcements we have made this week and through the National Energy Guarantee. For some time the government has been implementing policies that are driving down prices, whether it is the gas guarantee, where we have required the gas companies to put domestic supplies before their exports; whether it's the abolition of the limited merits review to ensure that we are attacking the network costs; or whether it's requiring gas companies to engage in a positive way with their customers to tell them about other deals they might have. We have been putting in place the policies that will drive down prices beyond the $115 that was identified by the Energy Security Board in the announcements this week.

The choice between this and the alternative is very clear. On the government side, you have an opportunity for affordable and reliable power, which is helping to drive jobs and helping to drive down the cost of living to take the pressure off hardworking families and businesses in terms of the price of their power. On the other side of the House, you have a blind ideological attachment to wind and solar power at all costs—but, in fact, we know what the cost is. It's $66 billion worth of subsidies for wind and solar power. It's a $66 billion tax slug on hardworking Australian families and businesses to subsidise wind and solar, which the Labor Party already admits is competitive with coal and gas. It is truly a crazy policy. Even after that subsidy, Labor can't guarantee the reliability of the system or the affordability of the power.

The Labor Party is all over the shop on energy. At the beginning of this week, they attacked the National Energy Guarantee even before it had been announced. It was then announced by the government and they condemned it, but then last night they leaked to the press that they were considering supporting it. We now have a position where Labor is both condemning and considering supporting this policy because they know in their heart of hearts that the Australian public want it. Since former Prime Minister Rudd declared that 'Climate change is the greatest moral challenge of our time,' Labor has had 12 different policies. They have had the dirty dozen of policies. Even today they are still trying to walk both sides of the street, considering supporting our policy while condemning it at the same time. I urge them to get on board. (Time expired)