Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019, otherwise known as the 'big stick' bill. As many of you will know, Labor was deeply critical of the original bill in the last parliament as it risked doing harm and seriously risked the privatisation of publicly owned electricity generators. This issue is particularly important to me and my fellow Tasmanians. The building of Tasmania's hydroelectric system—its dams and pipelines, turbines and power stations—created Australia's largest producer of renewable energy. Since its first hydropower development over a century ago, Tasmania has led the nation in renewable energy development. Today it uses water and wind power to harness natural energy that is then sold on to the country on the national grid.

Tasmanians and many migrants who battled often cruel working conditions, difficult terrain and huge engineering challenges—not to mention environmental disputes that divided families and communities—are enormously proud of their hydro and the thousands of people who sweated to build it. We've made it clear time and again that we are not prepared to countenance it being sold off and privatised. The Morrison government has attempted to deal with some of our reservations by introducing in this parliament this bill, which makes improvements particularly in relation to privatisation.

Labor, while supporting the bill, remain highly sceptical that it will make a real difference to the power bills of ordinary Australians, and we will continue to hold this government to account for its absolutely woeful management of energy policy in this country. Most recently, we witnessed the demise of the National Energy Guarantee and the career of the prime minister who backed it. Since then, and under new leadership, the government have wandered around producing their own special emissions in the form of thought bubbles and other expulsions that they think the Australian people might buy as actual policy. After 17 attempts, the coalition government still have no sensible energy policy to drive investment, reduce emissions or cut power bills for struggling Australian households and businesses.

This absence of a coherent, overarching policy should be a source of shame to this government. It is yet another example of a government without any plan for our country. Just the other week we heard Malcolm Turnbull state that the Liberals are simply incapable of delivering policy that takes account of carbon emissions. The government continue to squabble amongst themselves over carbon emissions and refuse to capitalise on the very clear evidence that a coherent policy would both benefit the hip pockets of energy consumers and create jobs, industries and opportunities for the future.

Just to be clear: the dubious nature of the impact this legislation might have is indicated by the fact that our own consumer watchdog, the ACCC, has not recommended it. Not only was it not recommended by the ACCC after its lengthy examination of the retail electrical market but, indeed, the ACCC recommended against a divesture power, as did Professor Ian Harper in his review of competition policy for the government a couple of years earlier. As any observer of this debate would know, various business groups, energy users and energy suppliers over the last 12 or 18 months have been critical of the legislation in its different iterations. However, since the election in May, business groups have changed their view from one of opposition to one of seeking to work with the government to improve the operation of this bill. In the spirit of being a constructive opposition, the Labor Party has also adopted this approach. In particular, we've been concerned about the impact of potential ministerial overreach in the operation of this original bill. It is important to note that the government has seen the error of its ways and pulled back the ministerial power that would be able to be exercised under this legislation. Instead, it has appropriately substituted a role for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a role for the Federal Court.

Since the original presentation of this bill, Labor has been steadfastly against its very significant loophole to allow the privatisation of publicly owned electricity assets—namely, the forcible divesture of publicly owned electricity assets and the transfer of those assets to private companies. We know the Liberal Party is addicted to the privatisation of electricity. We were promised there would be more choice and there would be better prices and competition in the market, but I think anyone who has even had a casual look at the operation of the electricity market knows that privatisations have worked for companies; they haven't worked for consumers. Mr Bob Katter, the member for Kennedy, and Labor identified this loophole in the original presentation of this bill. Labor in the other house was able to ensure that loophole was closed absolutely and completely to ensure that, if the operation of this legislation results in the divesture of a publicly owned asset, it can only be divested to another publicly owned asset with the same or a greater level of public ownership.

Also, as a Labor Party, we are, of course, very concerned that workers and their entitlements not be prejudiced by the operation of this legislation. Typically, this government appears to have paid no attention at all to the possibility that workers' entitlements could be reduced or negatively impacted by the operation of this legislation. Workers' entitlements, as we know, don't tend to be front of mind for Liberal governments. Workers cannot be seen as having responsibility for the conduct that is apparently the driver of this legislation being put in place—that is, allegations of cartel conduct or reductions of competition in the market. Labor in the other house moved an amendment to ensure that the transmission of business provisions of the Fair Work Act are deemed to apply to this type of transmission—namely, a forcible divesture. That will ensure that those entitlements that are contained in registered enterprise agreements and in awards are preserved and protected for workers.

Since consideration in the House, and thanks to the good work of the Senate committee that inquired into this bill, it has become clear that a similar issue exists for non-registered agreements between workers and employers in the context of possible divestiture. Labor does not accept that workers should be worse off as a result of divestiture, which is a remedy for prohibited conduct that workers themselves have no part in. Put simply, workers should not be punished for the anticompetitive actions of a company. That is a position that all senators should agree with. That is why Labor will be moving a further amendment in this place to ensure non-registered agreements between workers and employers which provide workers with additional protections agreed by employers should be safeguarded in the event of divestment. That is the right thing to do, it is the Labor thing to do, and we call on the government and others in this place to support our amendment.

I want to be clear that this bill is in no way a substitute for a proper, coherent national energy policy. Australia finds itself in the midst of the deepest energy crisis since the mid-1970s. Unlike that energy crisis in the 1970s, which was caused by an external shock, this energy crisis is a product of profound public policy failure. Households and energy-using businesses are paying the price for this crisis. Power bills for households and businesses are going up and up, and it is quite clear that the market expects those bills to continue to go up. Wholesale prices across the National Electricity Market are up by 158 per cent on average since the Liberal energy crisis really took hold in 2015. The Financial Review has reported that forward prices in the electricity market are up 29 per cent in just the 12 months since the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the National Energy Guarantee were both dispatched by a coalition party room in turmoil. The key problem, as identified by advice after advice, is that lack of a coherent national energy policy.

The Grattan Institute, reflecting what has happened to wholesale prices under this energy crisis, confirmed that it has resulted in $1 billion in additional windfall profits to just the three big private energy companies every year since this crisis took hold—paid for by Australian households and energy-using businesses. This government is, quite disturbingly, trying to persuade the Australian people that all things are tickety-boo in the investment market. It is true that we did have a surge in investment in renewable energy to achieve the Renewable Energy Target that the Labor Party put in place when we were in government. Now that target is discharged it is clear that, while Australia was leading the world in renewable energy investment, the level of investment in that sector is already down 50 per cent in the first half of 2019 alone. The Clean Energy Council said that that is probably an underestimate. This sector should be growing. Labor sees it as a beacon for investment, innovation and job creation, yet we expect it to shed thousands and thousands of jobs, because of policy uncertainty and the lack of a plan. We do support this bill, but we will continue to hold this government to account for its woeful management of energy policy and its lack of vision.