Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Energy. Will the minister update the House on how the government's strong economic management ensures an affordable and reliable energy system that benefits families, workers and small business? Is the minister aware of any different concepts?

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

I thank the member for Flynn for his question. He knows that the Turnbull government is focused on delivering lower taxes and lower energy prices, more jobs and more growth and investment. This is good news for the workers at the Boyne aluminium smelter and good news for the workers at the Callide Power Station, the Gladstone Power Station and the Stanwell Power Station across the member for Flynn's electorate. It is good news for the boilermakers, the fitters and turners, the mechanics, the engineers, the forklift drivers and the truck drivers, all of whom will benefit from the Turnbull government's economic plan. If you're a fitter and turner in the electorate of Flynn, you're earning $68,000 a year. Under the Turnbull government's tax plan, you will now have an additional $530 a year in your pocket. Over seven years, that's more than $3,700. If you're in the electorate of Flynn and you're a workshop manager on an income of $88,000 a year, you will be better off by $570 a year and over seven years you will be more than $4,000 better off.

That's not to mention the energy reforms that the Turnbull government has committed to, which are helping to deliver a drop of nearly 30 per cent in the wholesale prices. The ACCC is reporting that gas contracts have come down by up to 50 per cent. Retail users, households, businesses and small businesses across the electorates in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia will from 1 July start to see their prices fall. A growing retailer in Australia, Powershop, announced its new prices just today. Households in Queensland will see an 8.6 per cent drop. That's worth $140 a year to them. In New South Wales, they will see a three per cent drop. If you are a small business in South East Queensland, in Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast or on the Gold Coast—with Powershop's announcement today of a 14.6 per cent drop in power prices—this is worth more than $1,400 to you. Today, as a result of Powershop's announcement, if you are in New South Wales and you are a small business—a pie shop, for example—your prices will drop by 8.8 per cent. That's $970 for the pie shop owner. We are committed to a more reliable and affordable system. Under the coalition, lower power prices are not just an aspiration but a reality. Under the coalition, you will always pay less for your power bill than you will under Labor.