Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I concur with the member for Grey. Queensland will not make the same mistake as South Australia, because under his party and under his government they sold the assets in South Australia. They did. We will not make that mistake, and the people of Queensland have made that clear.

As the member for Grey has indicated, it is a huge, huge mistake. We know that the LNP in Queensland, if they are to return to the Treasury benches, will sell our essential assets. It is in their DNA. The member for Goldstein knows that: that the Liberal Party, as an article of faith, will actually say that they want to sell the assets that the people own. We know that. We hear it time and time again. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland last week said—wait for it—'Privatisation is dead,' just like Tony Abbott said Work Choices were 'dead, buried and cremated'. Fancy using the member for Warringah for a truth-in-government test. Hello! 'No cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to the ABC'—remember that one?

Ms Husar interjecting—

Yes. We get that. That is right. On the night before the election—Member for Lindsay, I take your interjection. But we hear today the member for Fairfax moving a motion—it is truthful too—from the LNP in Queensland. We had the member for Forde moving anther Queensland government motion. Memo to those opposite: start governing and do not worry about what is happening in Queensland. I know there are a lot of distractions: party room brawls week after week and stand-up fights with everyone hooking into each other instead of governing. We know that those are so divided they are too busy fighting amongst each other.

The only party in Australia that is a shambolic mess when it comes to energy policy are those opposite. We see it leaked out through their party minutes and leaked out through the cabinet, time and time again. It is peculiar that the member for Fairfax is drinking the LNP Kool-Aid to make sure that he can run the lines to prop up a failed leader and a failed Treasurer like Tim Nicholls. But we know that, even a fortnight ago, when the member for Fairfax and his government had the opportunity to work in a bipartisan way in a collaborative fashion, when the Finkel review was handed down into the future security of the National Electricity Market, we saw a complete meltdown inside the LNP. We know that under the LNP government, led by the Prime Minister, power prices have doubled. Their heads are down and they are silent now. That is a statement of fact. They know that. They cannot deny that. Under this government, power prices are up, pollution is up and jobs are down. We know this because that is what we are hearing time and time again.

Let's have a look at some of the facts about the motion that we are dealing with today, dished up by the member for Fairfax. The truth is that electricity prices in Queensland have been historically low since the Palaszczuk government came to power in 2015. In the year to March 2016, electricity prices rose by a meagre 1.43 per cent. In the past year they have grown by 3.18 per cent. Let's just go back to over two years ago, when the LNP were in power for that toxic experiment that was the Newman government, led by Campbell Newman and the then Treasurer, Tim Nicholls. It is a stark contrast. Power prices increased by 43 per cent over their term in office.

Just two weeks ago we saw the Premier announce a new Powering Queensland Plan, which will invest $1.16 billion to ensure Queenslanders continue to enjoy an affordable, secure and sustainable supply of electricity. The member for Fairfax mentioned the issue of state-owned power generators, and I am pleased to inform the House that the state government is leveraging its ownership of these businesses to intervene to reduce wholesale price impacts from the National Electricity Market and to protect jobs in energy-intensive industries. But, of course, that would not be happening if the LNP had been successful at that election and if the member for Fairfax and his supporters had had their way, because these assets would have been sold off, meaning the returns would have gone to interstate and overseas investors instead of being reinvested in the Queensland economy.

It is absolutely clear that all the member for Fairfax and the government need to do is to get on with the job of working in a bipartisan way on a national energy policy. Stop the infighting, stop blaming each other and start delivering for Australia. (Time expired)

See this speech in context