Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

We can also guarantee that if you continue to ignore the need for dispatchable base-load power then you will get more blackouts. If you get more blackouts, you will get more volatility and then you will pay even higher prices. We know how this Labor horror movie goes. It's been playing in South Australia for years. We know exactly what it does. They have no conception of the engineering and the economics that we need to deliver a reliable and affordable energy plan.

As for Dr Schott, I can say to the Labor Party: Eddie Obeid couldn't intimidate her and neither can any of his friends opposite. Kerry Schott is one of the finest public servants in this country. This is what she said: 'The guarantee is about providing a reliable power system and meeting the emissions targets set in the Paris Agreement. What will happen when those mechanisms are put in place is that prices are likely to come down and they're likely to keep coming down.' That is exactly the same advice that we received in the letter from the Energy Security Board—the experts that we've been called on to listen to and take advice from. What did they say? They said: 'Wholesale prices are expected to decline by 20 to 25 per cent over the same period—from 2020 to 2030—and that could lead to a reduction in residential bills in the order of $100 to $115 per annum. Compared to the clean energy target as specified in the Finkel review, this guarantee can be expected to lead to wholesale prices that are on average eight to 10 per cent lower over the 2020 to 2030 period.'

We've seen the Leader of the Opposition morph from a plausibly rational person to being completely irrational and saying that the cheapest energy source needs to be subsidised. That is unusual. That is 'Shortenomics'; it really is! We'd like to see a bit more of the nice Leader of the Opposition, the genial, bipartisan one who wrote to me and said:

The most effective policy for investment certainty in the energy sector is bipartisanship.

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… we believe it is time to put an end to the 'climate wars' …

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… Labor calls on the Government to work with us in a bipartisan approach …

Well, we have a recommendation from a bipartisan appointed expert— (Time expired)

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