David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australian households are hurting. Politicians are to blame, and politicians can relieve this pain right here, right now. Household electricity bills across the country have risen by around eight per cent each year over the past decade, and household electricity bills have risen by a further 20 per cent just over the last quarter. This is crippling. Charities have reported that thousands of low-income households have had to go without heating this winter because of unaffordable electricity—thousands of households, including our sick and elderly.

We will never know just how many deaths this winter can be attributed to unaffordable electricity, but the number would be substantial. And of course any number is unacceptable in a developed, resource-rich country like Australia. Thousands of households will go without cooling this summer, and more deaths will be the result. I challenge those who feel moral superiority when they cheer for policies that make electricity more expensive to acknowledge these deaths, and I challenge them to acknowledge their role in these deaths. You might say that this is the greatest moral challenge of our time.

Politicians are to blame for the pain of exorbitant electricity prices. Two decades ago, Australia enjoyed the lowest electricity prices in the world. Now Australians pay the highest electricity prices in the world. How is this possible? It is possible because, over the past two decades, no large-scale generators of reliable base-load power have been built in Australia. This is despite the fact that there has been considerable economic and population growth and the fact that the construction costs of power plants—along with their fuel, coal and gas—have gone down, although gas prices have currently gone up. This investment drought has been caused by politicians. They have implemented renewable energy targets that force coal-fired generators to pay small-scale, intermittent generators whatever it takes for their market share to grow. They have imposed carbon taxes with the specific purpose of driving out coal-fired base-load generators. Even now, with the carbon tax gone, they threaten carbon pricing that, depending on the carbon price involved, could drive the lowest-cost coal-fired power plant to bankruptcy. To top it off, the politicians have maintained an evidence-free ban on nuclear power.

Politicians can relieve the pain of exorbitant prices right here, right now. The building of new large-scale generators of dispatchable power will take years and will require either the suspension of the renewable energy target and a guarantee that there will be no carbon pricing or the legalisation of nuclear power. But we can relieve some of the pain of high electricity prices right now by making electricity GST free. My bill before the Senate makes electricity GST free. I propose that the Senate votes on this straightforward bill within the hour.

Electricity is an essential service like water and should be treated the same for tax purposes. I challenge any politician who plans to vote against making electricity GST free to declare that electricity is not an essential service; to explain how their constituents can live without electricity, which is more than likely what some of them will have to do this summer or, indeed, each summer until more generators are constructed; and to explain why water should be GST free but electricity should not.

Making electricity GST free will immediately save a typical household around $200 each year. For any politician planning to vote against it, please stop wringing your hands about the punishing electricity bills facing your constituents and admit that you just do not care. For those who use the excuse that the state governments would receive around $2 billion less in GST grants if we made electricity GST free, might I point out: each state budget other than Western Australia's is in surplus, and WA gets so little of its GST back that its deficit would be little changed. Together the state governments enjoy annual revenue of around $300 billion. So, if you plan on voting against making electricity GST free, please explain why you think it is that the state governments rather than the people should not struggle.

If you care about everyday Australians as they struggle with electricity prices created by politicians, I believe you must vote to make electricity GST free. I commend this bill to the Senate.