Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for his question. He knows that this government has a balanced and sensible approach to providing affordable, reliable electricity to all Australian small businesses and families, including in his electorate of Petrie. Several weeks ago, I visited the member's home state of Queensland, where I met Curtis and Chelsea, who own a fitness business, Flex Fitness, that uses a lot of electricity to keep their clients cool. Recently in Queensland, they saw their electricity bill go from $500 to $2,000 a quarter—times four. Curtis and Chelsea are paying for Queensland Labor's $2 billion electricity tax that is slugging Queenslanders to fix their budget blowout, because Labor governments prefer higher electricity prices, whereas we on this side of the parliament prefer lower ones.

The big energy companies have been forced to provide a better deal on energy prices, thanks to pressure from this government. Our actions have ensured that half a million Australian families will be getting a better deal from 1 January. AGL, EnergyAustralia, Origin, Alinta Energy and Lumo Energy, along with others, have heard the government's calls and have cut prices to customers on standing offers by up to 15 per cent, or up to $560 per annum for a typical residential customer.

Meanwhile, those opposite have announced that they will oppose our big-stick legislation, before they've even seen it—legislation that will hold the big energy companies to account, because the 'big three' energy companies have been taking record profits in recent years. In the last four financial years their profits grew by $1.15 billion per annum. I will remind those opposite that these companies are providing essential services to all Australians and their profits are partly coming through sneaky late payments, price gouging and loyalty taxes.

Worse than that, those opposite want to impose their reckless 45 per cent emissions reduction target on the entire economy and they haven't yet explained what that means for farmers and for truckies and tradies, who are going to be facing new, draconian vehicle-emissions standards, or what it means for manufacturers, who have been doing it tough. We stand for lower electricity prices, while we keep the lights on.

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