Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. By 2020, a mum who works in retail on a Sunday will be losing up to $77 a week because the Prime Minister supports cutting penalty rates. Does the Prime Minister really expect her to be grateful for a lousy 50c-a-week saving on her power bill in three years time?

Ms Henderson interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Corangamite will cease interjecting. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

The mother of whom the Leader of the Opposition speaks knows, as does every Australian, that energy bills will always be higher under a Labor government. Energy will always be unreliable under a Labor government because the Labor Party does not understand the engineering or the economics required to deliver sensible, rational energy policy. We don't have to speculate or theorise about it. Labor has proved its incompetence in the energy sector again and again, more so in South Australia than anywhere else, where we've seen the most expensive and the least reliable electricity in Australia—a tribute to the triumph in the Labor Party's pantheon of ideology and idiocy. They aren't even competent in their ideology. If they wanted to have a state full of windmills, they could at least have provided the backup and the storage. But no, they didn't do that. They just assumed, I suppose, that the wind would always blow, and that they could literally blow up a coal-fired power station and rely, more in hope than expectation, on a long extension cord to the Latrobe Valley in Victoria.

The Labor Party have failed Australia on energy and they have failed on economics. My government is delivering on economic leadership: 371,500 jobs created over the last 12 months, 85 per cent of them full-time. There hasn't been a longer run of jobs growth in 23 years. Jobs growth is the highest it's been since 2008 and is now faster than in any G7 economy. The participation rate is at five-year highs. Over the last two years, there have been 521,700 more Australians in jobs, and, since we were first elected four years ago, 825,500 jobs have been created. 'Jobs and growth' is not just a slogan; it is an outcome. It is an outcome delivering on jobs and growth. For all of the rhetoric and politics from the Leader of the Opposition, he can't defy the facts for much longer. Australians know that we are getting on with the job, we are leading and we are seeing jobs growth unparalleled for 23 years. That is the commitment of our economic leadership.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister further update the House on the steps the government is taking to ensure that energy is affordable and reliable for hardworking Australians, including those living in my electorate of North Sydney?

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

I thank the honourable member for North Sydney. There are 371,500 more Australians in work than a year ago. As I said a moment ago, it's been the longest run of monthly jobs growth since 1994. That is an extraordinary achievement and it is a tribute to the enterprise and the hard work of Australian businesses that are benefiting from the economic leadership my government is offering and the incentives to invest and employ that they are receiving from the enterprise tax cuts the parliament has approved, applying to small and medium businesses.

Mr Brian Mitchell interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lyons is warned.

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

To remain competitive, Australian businesses need affordable and reliable energy. They need to have the gas they need, they need to have electricity for their businesses, and they need to be reliable and affordable. That is what we are delivering.

When it comes to energy, the Leader of the Opposition writes charming letters to me occasionally, talking about bipartisanship. But he went completely off the reservation this morning. He described the considered advice from the Energy Security Board, appointed by COAG, comprising five of the most knowledgeable people in the energy sector, as science fiction. That is what he said. Then, as he started to foam and froth at the mouth, he described it as propaganda from the government. This is a recommendation from an independent board, appointed by COAG, accountable to COAG, with more Labor governments appointing members to it than Liberal governments. These are people of immense expertise—the Energy Market Operator; the Energy Regulator; the chairman of the rules maker, the AEMC; and of course Dr Kerry Schott and Clare Savage, the independent chair and deputy chair. These are excellent appointments. They were praised by the member for Port Adelaide at the time, and he was right then. Now those opposite don't like the outcome and so all they can do is smear and play politics. Australians deserve better.

The reality is this: Labor have failed to put Australian families first. They have failed to prioritise affordability and reliability. They have allowed Australians to see energy prices rise and gas become in short supply, all because of ideology and stupidity. Now we see the Leader of the Opposition complaining about jobs lost in renewables, or so he forecasts. What about the 5,000 jobs in Snowy Hydro 2.0? What about that? That is what we are creating.

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, members on my left! The member for Sydney and the Minister for Urban Infrastructure might just mute for a bit.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Power prices have never been higher than they are right now under the Liberals and, under this Prime Minister, pensioners are facing the axing of their energy supplement, a cut of $365 every year. Is the Prime Minister so out of touch that he expects pensioners to thank him because they might get a lousy 50c saving on their power bills in three years time? Don't flick the question off this time.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left need to lower the volume or I will start lowering it myself.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's interesting that yesterday the member for Sydney got up and put to us that somehow the removal of the carbon tax was a myth, and now they're complaining about the fact that we want to remove the carbon tax compensation. That is fascinating. It is particularly fascinating when the carbon tax compensation was a savings measure that members opposite adopted, booked, saved and spent.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Wrong, we hear. Let me read to you a fair summary of the situation that appeared in The Guardian on 24 August, 2016. The Guardian doesn't always run to our defence, I tend to find, as a government, but this is what The Guardian said on 24 August 2016:

As both sides gear up for the looming sitting period, Labor has also this week debated whether or not to proceed with a … saving it accepted during the election campaign … the abolition of an energy supplement.

You would have thought that if it wasn't true then The Guardian would have let us know that—wouldn't you think that? Those opposite come up, time and time again, and try to pretend to this place that somehow or other they did not bank this saving knowing it was the end of the carbon tax compensation.

What the opposition do do is before an election they say they are opposed to the saving and they say they will support the saving, and then after the election they are opposed to it again. When the election comes around again, they will support it again, they will bank it again, they will book it again and they will spend it again. Do you know what? Even The Guardian will write about the fact that that is what they have done.