Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

The worst-kept secret has been revealed today. Who would have thought that we would be in some way shocked to hear that the coalition government has decided to baulk on the Finkel review's clean energy target. The worst-kept secret that Australians have been waiting to hear has come to fruition. And not only has the Prime Minister turned his back on his own chief scientist, but, in doing so, he has embraced the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's vision of Australian energy, which brings Australia's energy policy back to the 1950s.

But what is really, really unclear is what this new energy policy of the government is really all about, because we are hearing conflicting views when it comes to detail—as usual—from this Turnbull government. The AEMC CEO, Mr John Pierce, today told Sky News that there are indeed different modelling scenarios when it comes to the National Energy Guarantee. This is where Australians are again completely bewildered as to what this government's policy is.

We know that the Prime Minister and the energy minister have been spruiking an average annual power bill reduction of $115 under these new energy reforms. But now we hear from the AEMC's John Pierce that there are different modelling scenarios, and it may indeed be as low as $25 a year according to some confidential modelling. So what is the reality here? How can this government try and hoodwink the Australian people into believing there will be a saving of $115 a year when a very pre-eminent individual by the name of John Pierce, from the AEMC, who the government has been relying on, has made it very clear there are different scenarios and one scenario is as low as $25? That just completely blows this policy out of the water. And all of the rhetoric that Malcolm Turnbull, Minister Josh Frydenberg and the Leader of Government in the Senate, Senator Brandis, have been spruiking is why Labor today asked pertinent questions as to the detail of what this is all about.