Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the importance of reliable and affordable energy supply for our economy? What steps is the government taking to put downward pressure on energy costs for all Australians?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. She knows the Turnbull government is on the side of Australians and Australian businesses who want more reliable, more affordable energy. That is what the Turnbull government is doing. We are on the side of Australians and Australian businesses that want to see downward pressure on rising electricity prices. That is why, in the budget this year, we announced five key things that we will be doing to put downward pressure on rising electricity prices.

The first of those was added to today by the Prime Minister and the energy minister. We are going to secure our gas for domestic use. We will stop large energy and gas companies exporting Australian energy gas offshore when it is needed here in Australia to put downward pressure on electricity prices in this country. We put $90 million in the budget to promote gas supply in to this country. We will restrict those gas exports as we have announced in further detail today. We have said we are going to give consumers, that is households and businesses, a fairer go when it comes to energy prices on both gas and electricity. I have tasked the competition watchdog, the ACCC, to investigate the competition and the retail pricing behaviour of large energy companies who are putting up the power prices on gas and electricity for Australian businesses and Australian consumers. We are investigating those practices, and that will inform our further steps in that area.

We are improving the regulations to make our energy markets more transparent and more efficient. Today, we have said we are abolishing the limited merits review process, which has been a key factor in driving up energy costs with generation capacity and increasing the costs. The merits review process has enabled that to happen and forced up those prices. We are investing in new generation technology, transmission and storage capacity. The Snowy 2.0 scheme will add some 2,000 megawatt hours capacity, and we are getting on with that job. More than that, we are already in negotiations with the New South Wales and Victorian governments to take on the full responsibility for Snowy. We will continue those negotiations to ensure that the funds that are provided in that sale will go into important infrastructure spending in both New South Wales and Victoria. We are investing in low-emissions technologies, with some $3 billion through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The Turnbull government is on the side of Australians who want to see downward pressure on electricity prices. We are not interested in the ideology wars that those opposite want to engage in—who want to restrict the options and the opportunities for this government to put downward pressure on electricity prices. They need to end the ideology wars and join the government in putting downward pressure on electricity prices. (Time expired)