Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for his question. The National Energy Guarantee is the unanimous recommendation of the independent Energy Security Board, set up by COAG on the recommendation of the Finkel report. It will give Australians what they are asking for—reliable energy at a lower cost that meets our environmental obligations. It is estimated by the independent board to deliver savings of up to $115 per household per year. This is a game changer. This takes us into a new era for energy, a post-subsidy era, where Australian families, households and businesses will no longer be forced to pay for these ideologically driven subsidies. They will no longer need to pay for them as a result of the policies of this government. We are removing these costs from the system. By contrast, the electricity bill you would get from the Labor Party would be $66 billion in higher subsidies, driven not by economics or engineering but just by the sheer ideology of the Labor Party. They are not subsidies that need to be paid to meet our environmental obligations; they are subsidies that will be imposed by the Labor Party, by this Leader of the Opposition, on families, on businesses, on households, to the tune of thousands of dollars for each one of those families over that period. They do this, they nail their colours to the mast of the Clean Energy Target, on the basis that it would deliver certainty and it would deliver on our environmental obligations, but what they do know is that a CET will not deliver on reliability, on affordability. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: 'Clearly, if you want to solve for affordability, it is not the Clean Energy Target that is going to do it.' He said:

The Clean Energy Target involves a subsidy which has to be paid for, which is smeared across all users …

Labor have given up on reliability and they've given up on affordability, all in the name of putting subsidies before the idol of their own ideology. But on top of that, they say that the CET will deliver certainty. I'm pleased to quote the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, who said today: 'The National Energy Guarantee will provide more in certainty than the Clean Energy Target. The government plan has great potential to produce affordable, reliable power, reduce emissions and boost market confidence, and we are looking forward to the further work.' This government has a plan for reliable, affordable energy that delivers on our environmental obligations. The Labor Party has a plan for an electricity bill of $66 billion on families, households and business.

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