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

The trading is trading of physical energy. It's trading of electricity. It's not trading of permits. There are no certificates. There are no permits. It is trading of physical energy, which, as the honourable member should be very well aware, happens all the time—millions of dollars being traded every hour of the day. That has always been the case. But, as John Pierce, chair of the Australian Energy Market Commission, which is the rules-maker, and a member of the Energy Security Board, said today:

There are no subsidies or certificates involved in this guarantee and in this sense it does not involve a price or tax on carbon.

We are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability …

The honourable member may yearn for the subsidy. This is the part of the Labor Party's position that I find most baffling. The Leader of the Opposition goes to a solar farm at Mildura and he stands there and he says, 'This is fantastic'. He's blinded by the light. He says, 'This is cheaper than new coal; it is so good.' Then he says, 'But that's why we have to subsidise it.' Talk about science fiction! What Australians deserve is affordable, reliable energy. What Labor has delivered is unaffordable and unreliable energy. Their policies make no sense. They try to defy the laws of physics. The Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, was asked about the reliability requirement, where she's having to intervene in the honourable member's state constantly to maintain stability, and she said, 'Well, you have to comply with the laws of physics.' That's true, but not if you're in the Labor Party, apparently. They think windmills will turn when there's no wind. They think solar panels will generate in the middle of the night. Perhaps that is from moonshine—that is, moonbeams. But, worst of all, what this recklessness does is impose higher costs and less reliable power. Australians know Labor does not have the management or the business sense to deliver affordable and reliable power. Energy will always be unreliable and more expensive under Labor.

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