Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of the minister's answer. I say at the outset that I could not be prouder to be a member of the coalition team. We have had extremely robust debate on this critically important issue. I was in the party room and I spoke in support of the NEG package. I'm very proud of what Minister Frydenberg, in particular, has done with the support of his cabinet colleagues. I think those opposite sometimes forget or don't even understand that robust debate inside a party room is actually a healthy thing to have on such an important policy. No matter how often those opposite say otherwise, both party rooms strongly endorsed this program for the National Energy Guarantee.

Let's have a look at how we've developed this plan and what we found when we came to government. Those opposite very often like to pretend that nothing happened and that we didn't inherit any particular situations in this or any other policy area. So let's have a look at Labor's track record, federal and state, and see the position that Labor left us in, which we have been successfully dealing with. It is absolutely a fact to say that the Labor Party is a party of higher energy prices. Remember last time Labor was in office, electricity prices—guess how much, Senator Fawcett. Madam Deputy President, when you were in government, how much did power prices rise over your six years? They rose by 100 per cent. Over your six years, Australian men and women, families and businesses were paying 100 per cent more for their power than when you came to government.

Over the past decade, those opposite have nearly crippled this nation with successive flip-flops on energy policy. Who can forget the CPRS, the carbon tax and the CET, the ETS and the EIS, the pink batts, the contract for coal closures, 'cash for clunkers' and the citizens assembly? Speaking about the carbon tax, when the coalition repealed the carbon tax, which those opposite promised they would never bring in but of course did, it led to the largest fall in electricity prices on record, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Even more importantly, the ACCC said that it saved $550 on the average household bill. That was due to the actions of this side of the chamber, and I am incredibly proud to have been part of that.

During those six years of Labor government, electricity prices doubled. The federal and state Labor policies have continued to put pressure on prices, through things like their job-destroying gas bans and moratoriums, unrealistic and unachievable renewable energy targets and open hostility to reliable base-load power. Those opposite don't yet seem to get that there is a direct link between these extremist green ideologies and power prices. In fact, they doubled the power prices on Australian families during their last term in office. And the tragedy is they've got the same policies now, if not worse. Not only do they sit there criticising this side of the chamber for making sound policy decisions to fix the problems that they created, but, if they got in again, they would do exactly the same thing to Australian businesses and households. This government's action is already having positive effects. Wholesale electricity prices are down around 25 per cent in 2018 compared to last year. Retail power bills have been reduced, as of 1 July, across New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. You can see that our policies are working. The National Energy Guarantee will continue the progress. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.