Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will get to that in a minute. For large-scale PV farms, it would be about $80. We had testimony from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the government body tasked with looking at these issues, before the house energy committee. They said you look at those costs and you add on a price for storage. It is fair enough to add on a cost for storage to compare apples with apples. Guess how much it is? It is $20 a megawatt hour. So, for reliable, dispatchable wind power, with storage, you are looking at $75 to $80 a megawatt hour versus $150 for coal fired power—and that is unsubsidised. That is without a RET and without any government subsidy.

Government members interjecting—

That is without a RET. The nub of this debate is that those people on the other side are not worried about the environment—but the environment should not drive this debate; economics should drive this debate, and the economics is very clear. A new coal fired power station will not be built in this country without massive subsidies that taxpayers, working class families and pensioners in my electorate and the electorates of my colleagues over there, will pay for. Quite frankly, that is a disgrace, but it is symbolic—

A government member: And you represent the coalminers!

I proudly represent the coalmining communities. Coal has a good future in this country. Metallurgical coal will have a strong future in export and our existing thermal coal fired power stations will have a life ahead of them. But what is worse than talking about coal power is lying to coal workers and that is what those on the other side are doing. They are lying to coalminers and saying, 'Nothing has to change. We can keep doing what we have done for the last 150 years and nothing has to change.' That is what those on the other side are doing; they are lying to workers. What is worse is those lies will lead to greater costs to households in this country and to taxpayers, greater costs than they have to be and that is the nub of this matter. The truth is the government has abandoned any claim to economic credibility. Policy is being driven by the member for Hughes and the Deputy Prime Minister. It is being driven by the remnants of the old DLP. The Liberal Party no longer believe in markets because if they believed in markets—

Mr Craig Kelly interjecting—

Well you are representing their policies right now, member for Hughes, because those policies are a rejection of market economics, a rejection of a free market and are instead embracing a command-and-control policy that would do BA Santamaria proud. That is what they are doing. That is what they tried to do under the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, and that is what they are doing right now.

I am prepared to debate energy policy and electricity prices uphill and down dale with these jokers on the other side any day because the facts are on my side, the economics are on my side, the industry is on my side, and—guess what—the workers on my side too.

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