Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corio for his contribution. Time and time again you will see members of the House come into this chamber and the chamber below and speak about identical topics. We are living in an environment where the National Energy Guarantee is topical, and it is a topic which resonates with both sides of the House with the most utmost passion. What both sides of the House agree on is that we're both in pursuit of downward pressure on electricity prices, because it is those who win that argument, who can prove and deliver, who give their party the best opportunity to govern at the next election. That's the hardcore reality.

The other reality is when we go back to our electorates. You stand and you commit to a 15-minute conversation in a town hall with 500 in the room and you start talking about the National Energy Guarantee. By the time you've got to the end of your opening paragraph, most of the room are rolling their eyes over it and have tapped out. Unless you are across it, it is a complicated and in-depth topic, and I don't profess to be. I have been speaking about it and trying to understand it for the last month.

When I speak in those town halls, what do I get back from my constituents—constituents like Mal and Glenn Abbott, who are irrigators from farms in my electorate? I remember Glenn Abbot telling me a story once. He went to the letterbox, grabbed his electricity bill and opened it at the letterbox. He was sitting in his Toyota and he had to open the door—he was physically sick to see the increases in his bills. Quite an animated description, but it gives a sense of how urgently the public want us to deal with this. We just have a different mechanism as to how we're going to get there. The previous speaker articulately outlined that Labor has a policy that looks at 50 per cent renewables. We have a greater mix, where we see coal as a sufficient baseload power source that will be part of the generation source into the future.

I want to speak about the spot price and some of the inequities that arise as a result of the spot price. If I have 100 megawatts that I want to procure, and I get the first lot at 80, and I get the next lot at 40 and the next lot at 60, ultimately, in a reverse auction I have to pay everyone the exact same price. There is market failure. This government is about setting to right that wrong.

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