Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the government's energy plan will guarantee reliability so that hardworking Australians and businesses get the affordable and reliable energy they need, including in my electorate of Corangamite?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question. She understands very well the importance of affordable and reliable energy. So many jobs in her electorate depend upon affordable and reliable energy. The one thing that her constituents know is that Labor's folly with energy has one consequence: more expensive and less reliable energy. The reality is this: the Labor Party has conducted a massive, incompetent experiment on Australian families and businesses with their energy policies—or lack of them.

The Leader of the Opposition wants us to cut our emissions by twice as much as we agreed to at Paris—twice as much, unilaterally. He has done no modelling on the cost of that at all. The only modelling that has been available, which has come from the department, suggests that would involve an additional cost of $66 billion. That is an additional cost in order to meet a target that is twice what we agreed to in Paris. We know that the consequence of Labor is always higher electricity prices and less reliable energy.

What we have now is a recommendation from the Energy Security Board that will deliver affordable and reliable energy and will enable us to meet our emissions reduction obligations. It will deliver affordability, reliability and responsibility. This is not a political proposal; it has come from the experts in the business. It's come from the experts appointed by COAG—which has more Labor governments than coalition governments—chaired by an independent chairman with the Energy Market Operator, the rules maker and the regulator all on that board. This is what they have recommended.

What did the Leader of the Opposition say in response? He called it science fiction. Then he called it nonsense. This shows no respect whatsoever for people whose intellect and experience makes them the best qualified in the industry. It's no wonder that one group after another is endorsing our National Energy Guarantee. The head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance said:

It solves a whole bunch of problems … in an incredibly elegant way.

From ACCI, from AIG, from the Minerals Council, from the BCA, from BlueScope and from BHP—from right across the board—we've seen support for this energy guarantee. Labor should back it and back the efforts of the experts.