Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks very much to Senator Gichuhi. Indeed, this big experiment demonstrated the cost—the extreme cost—to households but demonstrated as well that sensible policy can make a real difference.

The modelling undertaken for the National Energy Guarantee proposed by the Turnbull government shows that household power bills will be around $400 lower. That, of course, is of great benefit to each and every struggling Australian family, to know that in the future their household bills will be lower than would otherwise be the case and to know that the Turnbull government reforms are going to make a real difference to their cost of living.

But it is not just households. Under estimated modelling, the NEG will see a 23 per cent reduction in wholesale power prices. That means a local supermarket in South Australia, for example, could save almost half a million dollars a year; a small business or cafe could save hundreds of thousands of dollars; and an energy-intensive manufacturer could save millions of dollars. These are real benefits that allow people to employ more Australians, create more jobs and ease the cost of living. (Time expired)