Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley is not a bad bloke, but he's got his facts wrong again. Again the Labor Party is repeating falsehoods in this place, misleading the Australian people, making facts up on the run, deceiving them about what the Australian Energy Regulator and what the Australian Energy Market Commission have said. The reality is that power prices in Sydney have recently gone up. We've seen a substantial increase in July, and we also saw an increase in 2016. In the years prior, we saw some decreases. But we have seen nothing like the 100 per cent increase that we saw under the Labor Party. As the Prime Minister has said, we are cleaning up Labor's mess following their failure to heed the warnings of their own energy white paper and their failure to heed the warnings of the Australian Energy Market Operator when it came to setting up large exports of gas from the east coast and the impact that that would have on shortfalls and on price. We know that gas is increasingly setting the price of electricity.

If the Labor Party had only been sensible, if they'd only had some foresight, if they had only prepared, then we wouldn't have been in the situation we are in today, with gas prices tripling over the last five years. And what about their idiocy when it comes to coal? The member for Hunter, who's waving the white flag over Liddell, who's refusing to stand up for his workers, who will go to Newcastle, write in the Newcastle Herald, 'I'm the best friend of the coal workers,' then comes into this place and votes for motions that say coal has no future in Australia. That is what the member for Hunter does. What about the member for Shortland? In his maiden speech he bashes his chest and he says, 'I'm the great friend of coal; I'm a descendant of coal workers' but in this place he's overseeing policies that will close our coal-fired power stations, even though coal is a source of reliable and affordable power.

There's a clear line of difference between this side of the House and those opposite. Those opposite want to join with the Greens to sell out blue-collar workers to try to win some votes in the inner city. We on this side of the House want to stand up for manufacturers. We want to stand up for industries, like in the member for Wannon's electorate and in the member for Grey's electorate. We stand with the—

Ms Swanson interjecting—

Mr Pasin interjecting—

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