Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Energy. I again raise the issue of electricity, because South Australia is in such a state of crisis. Will the minister outline to the House the action the government is taking to responsibly integrate renewable energy into the market while still ensuring energy security and affordability for hardworking Australians? How would an alternative approach jeopardise energy security and affordability?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for his question and note that last night he made a very passionate speech in this place about the instability and the high prices in South Australia. It is having a terrible impact on Olympic Dam, on the Nyrstar smelter, on Arrium and also on the abalone farm, which has seen electricity prices go up by 90 per cent in his electorate in the last 12 months alone.

Our No. 1 energy policy priority is energy security, and our No. 1 challenge in getting energy security is ensuring the smooth integration of intermittent sources of power—wind and solar—into the grid. That is why we have charged Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, to come up with a blueprint for reform to tell us how we can do it better. In the Prime Minister's talk about pumped hydro, he said we have invested record amounts in storage, and we are also looking to create new markets for frequency control and ancillary services and for the inertia that is normally provided by baseload power, which the market needs to stabilise.

I was also asked: am I aware of any alternative approaches? We know that this morning the Leader of the Opposition was embarrassed on AM when four times he could not answer the question of how much his renewable energy target would cost and what the burden would be on consumers. You would think that it was the first time he had heard that question, but if you go back to 22 July 2015, when he announced his policy, he was asked—four times as well—how much his would policy cost. This is what he had to say:

How are you going to pay for this?

That was the question.

Well … the rest of the world's already moving on renewable energy.

The question came:

Sure but how are you going to pay for it Mr Shorten?

He said:

I hear your question but I'm just going to the issue which is at the heart of it.

Then he was asked again but you complained about the carbon price and said it would put up costs and asked about his policy. He said it would not do that at all. And then fourth:

What sort of savings for households does your modelling show that this will bring forward?

Mr Shorten replied:

… we think it is important that a political party is up-front with the Australian people.

That was the policy.

But, of course, not everyone in the opposition got the memo not to talk about the cost. The poor member for Cowan got up in this place yesterday and said Labor's election policy of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 would require—wait for it—$48 billion. She belled the cat. She said what the Leader of the Opposition was not prepared to say. She told the truth. It will cost every Australian household $5,000. It will cost every Australian man, woman and child $2,000. That is the cost of your policy, which has gone MIA at the Press Club, and that is the cost of your policy to Australian homes.

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

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.