Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was very pleased to hear some of the commentary from the other side, especially from the member for Bruce, because I think he put his foot in it when he said that he is listening to preschoolers. Preschoolers are telling the Labor Party what to do in their energy policy. The Labor Party of this nation wants to copy the failed experiment of South Australia. Even preschoolers should realise what an absolute nonsense that is.

We often have debates about policy in this House where one side suggests something and we theorise about what might happen. We argue about it—about the prospects and the unintended consequences. It's a debate about future policy—about what will actually happen.

But with Labor's policy of a 50 per cent renewable energy target, we know exactly what happens. We've run that experiment. It's called South Australia! We know what happened. It gave that state not only the highest electricity prices in the nation but the highest electricity prices in the world! Yet the Labor Party members walk in here, one after the other, and say, 'We want a 50 per cent renewable energy target, just like South Australia, because that will get prices down.' Pre-schoolers couldn't make that stuff up! Yet this is the policy that we are confronted with, recommended by those on the other side of the chamber.

From the time I've been here, I think you can put most members of the Labor Party into two categories: bald-faced hypocrisy or, especially during the last two terms of parliament, 'Why haven't you fixed up our mess quick enough?' Yet this motion, amazingly, covers both of those. A member of the Labor Party who comes from Victoria walked into this chamber and tabled a motion on the growing gas crisis in Australia—when the green left Labor Party down in the state that he comes from has a total ban on the exploration and development of both conventional gas and unconventional gas! When the Labor Party has that ban, and when we've got the ACCC and even the chief scientist of this nation recommending that that ban be lifted and each exploration be looked at on its merits, we have members of the Labor Party coming in here raising a motion about a gas crisis!

Of course, this whole problem goes back to the fact that, when the Gillard government gave those exploration permits, they simply didn't put in a reservation for gas. That is the root cause of this problem. I'll acknowledge that our side didn't argue that very well at the time, and we should have.

We also heard nonsense comments during this debate, about how the more intermittent renewable energy you put into the grid the cheaper the prices will go. But that is contrary to all the evidence. If we look at the evidence from overseas, there is a clear correlation: the more intermittent generation that is put into a grid, the more intermittent solar and wind that is in a grid, the higher the electricity prices are. The correlation is almost perfect. It's the same here with South Australia. When we hear mindless comments such as 'renewables are cheaper than coal', this is a disservice to our parliament. You are not comparing like for like if you are comparing intermittent generation with base-load dispatchable generation. Any plan to increase the amount of intermittent generation into our grid and displace our current coal generation, which is currently producing electricity at a cost of around $30 to $35 a megawatt hour, can only do one thing: drive electricity prices higher in this nation.

I am sure that all members have had contact from constituents complaining about electricity prices. I hope those from the Labor Party put their ideological biases aside, forget about green virtue signalling and trying to capture the green vote, and get on board with the coalition policy to get electricity prices down. The only way we can get electricity prices down is to get new base-load generation underway. (Time expired)

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