House debates

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Questions without Notice

Electricity Prices

2:13 pm

Photo of Julia GillardJulia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Can I perhaps ask him in return why he is determined to see continued underinvestment in electricity generation that will put upwards pressure on prices. I say to the member who asked the question that, when he looks around the nation at increasing electricity prices, whether it is in Western Australia or in other states and territories, he will find that the explanation is underinvestment in electricity generation. If he is in any doubt about that, I suggest that he get on the phone to the Premier of Western Australia, who could quickly explain the concept to him.

When we look forward and say, ‘Well, how are we going to get this investment in electricity generation?’ what we hit absolutely is the uncertainty from the electricity industry that they will not invest until they know what the economic settings are with a carbon price. We are talking, of course, about investments worth billions of dollars, and people rightly want certainty in the making of those investments. That is why it is important to work through the question of pricing carbon. Yes, it is not an easy reform. It will take work and thought. It will take the generation of consensus, which is why the government, with the opportunities of this new parliament, have been prepared to say that we will work in that way through the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. I say again, as I said to the Leader of the Opposition earlier, if the member asking the question is seriously concerned about increasing electricity prices then there is a way of constructively joining this debate, and the way of doing that would be to acknowledge that this is a nation that needs to work through the question of pricing carbon and to join the mechanism to do that. In the absence of the preparedness to work constructively, what we see from the opposition is that they are full of complaint but have absolutely no idea about any solutions.

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