Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike those on his own backbench, I listened very carefully to what the minister had to say. I don't know whether they were trying to dissociate themselves from what he was saying, whether they were embarrassed by what he was saying or whether they were just bored and almost asleep, but there was no support there. In fact, for a while I didn't know if the minister was going to make the 10 minutes. He seemed to be running out of material. Why would he be running out of material? That would be because, in four years, his government has done nothing in terms of energy policy. That's why he spent 99 per cent of his speech attacking the party that has been in opposition for four years.

We are confronting an energy crisis in this country. Of that there can be no doubt. If we face a hot summer this year, the lights will almost certainly go out. The minister suggested we didn't have a blackout in New South Wales on their watch. That is true.

Ms Swanson interjecting—

I hear the member for Paterson, who represents the workers of Tomago. We had to close down the smelter in her electorate. That's why we didn't have a blackout in New South Wales. The minister has so mismanaged the energy sector that we had to shut down the Tomago aluminium smelter so the lights in New South Wales wouldn't go out. The member for Paterson's constituents were the victims, as were all the residents of the Hunter Valley.

For all the complexities of our energy system, the issues we face are pretty simple. It is economics 101. Demand is outstripping supply in the energy sector. And why is that so? It is because of four years of mismanagement from those who sit opposite. I'm going to slightly correct the member for Port Adelaide. He said that we'd had this problem for four years. I would suggest that it's five years. He's correct: they have been governing for four years. But this investment drought began five years ago when the member for Warringah started promising all and sundry that if he was elected he would unravel the carbon architecture—the carbon price—the former Labor government put in place. It's from that date five years ago that investors in this country started wondering what the rules were going to look like in the future. It's from that date five years ago that investments started drying up in the generation sector.

The minister at the table need not lecture me about workers in the Hunter Valley. The next coalminer he meets will be his first—and the chair of Rio Tinto doesn't count, Minister. Catching up with the chairman of Rio Tinto doesn't mean you've met a coalminer. Have you met a coalminer or power station operator? Constituents in my electorate and throughout the Hunter region are copping a double whammy. They will face the same high energy prices as all others in the consumption market. They will be hit with the high prices caused by this minister. But, in addition to that, they are missing out on their opportunity to transition to a new energy economy.

There is an opportunity for the Hunter region to remain the powerhouse of New South Wales, a title it has enjoyed for decades. The members representing the region have been saying for many years that our coal-fired power generators are coming to the end of their commercial life. In the case of Liddell, as we know, this will be within five years. We've been saying that we have an opportunity to transition to a new energy economy. How? Gas is obvious. We have the land around the existing power stations. The transmission lines are there. We have the skilled workforce that can easily transition into the gas sector. Beyond gas, we have already established significant solar networks. Wind energy offers enormous opportunities in the Hunter. We have geothermal opportunities. We have the CSIRO in Newcastle, another great Labor initiative. But, for four years now, we've not been making that transition. We can't get investors interested, because they don't know what the rules are—and they don't know what the rules are, because of this mob opposite. No-one would be happier than me if Liddell could be extended, but this minister has no plan to do so.

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