Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct) Bill 2019. The last few weeks have been dominated by the crushing effects of the drought being experienced right around this country. The last few days have seen, frankly, apocalyptic climate-driven bushfires which have now taken lives as well as homes and huge swathes of bushland. Those fires come on top of the fact that towns are soon to run out of water. A few towns in my home state are already having water trucked into them. Regional communities are under enormous financial and psychological pressure, and the government's own reports have detailed the increased frequency with which farming areas will be turned into desert because of our climate collapse, yet there's no government legislation in front of this parliament to deal with those society-wide challenges of our planet cooking and drying out.

But we do have this 'big stick' bill. What a very big stick it is! Of course, it is purely targeted at bullying energy companies to keep coal in the system for as long as possible. Today we have not just the government but the opposition, both big parties, supporting government intervention in the market to prop up old coal-fired power stations as we have warnings of catastrophic bushfires bearing down on New South Wales and where my home state of Queensland is on fire. We have bipartisan support for coal-fired power and keeping those old clunkers going, despite industry wanting to move away from them. Not only does this approach fly in the face of the climate science—we're getting a bit used to that—but it flies in the face of global economics. Coal use in the National Electricity Market is down eight per cent in the last year. Many of those coal-fired power stations that are in the NEM are old and outdated. They are clunkers that break down regularly, and every month they get older and pose an even bigger threat to the reliability of our energy system.

This government cannot hold back technological progress, no matter how hard they try—and even when they have the Labor Party's legislative support. Of course, Labor opposed this bill before the election, but now they are too scared to talk about government-backed just transitions away from coal and coal-fired power and towards clean, job rich, renewable energy. What an absolute travesty and abrogation of duty that is! The fact is that renewable technologies are getting cheaper and more efficient every month. In the next few years, building a new solar plant will be cheaper than running those existing coal-fired plants—that is huge. That is despite the fact that those existing plants would have already been paid off and run into the ground to squeeze out every last dollar of profit. We know that new solar is already cheaper than new coal, but in the next few years it will be cheaper than existing coal-fired power.

Instead of a clear timetable for the retirement of coal-fired power stations, proper planning, investment in grid infrastructure and a clear pathway to a zero-emissions electricity sector, the electricity market has been victim to a war of words, threats and ad hoc policy bubbles. This bill represents the latest round in the Liberal-Nationals ideological war on a rational energy transition to renewable energy. As a result of the policy uncertainty created by this government's unwillingness to accept the climate crisis, what we have here is yet another strategy to cause chaos and uncertainty in order to scare away the billions of global dollars wanting to invest in clean energy. It sounds to me like a strategy to keep their coal donors donating.

The government don't care that this uncertainty will keep driving power prices up, and they certainly don't care that coal workers will be thrown out of employment at a moment's notice, instead of guaranteeing that not one worker will be left behind, as Germany managed to do in the coal transition plan that they have now delivered. This government doesn't care that keeping coal open longer will make the drought a constant, lived experience and force the migration of farming families. All they care about is the donations of coal, oil and gas companies continuing to line their parties' pockets.

Under any other government, a divestment power for anticompetitive conduct and market manipulation would be welcomed by our party—and that is why we are going to support Senator Patrick's amendment—but we cannot support this legislation, because it is designed solely to bully energy companies to keep open old coal-fired power stations—like Liddell, in particular—which will result in driving up prices and creating even more uncertainty and unreliability in our energy system. It is absolutely clear that the government hounded the former CEO of AGL out of the country and then established the Liddell Taskforce and now have introduced this bill, all with the express purpose of keeping one of Australia's dirtiest power stations open, against the owner's wishes and against commercial reality. If the Liberals weren't so in love with privatisations, the government would still own Liddell. But I guess they are a victim of their own success in that regard.

The powers contained in this bill are largely friendless. Evidence to the committee and statements in the media show that almost the whole of the energy sector is opposed to this bill. A number of legal bodies and energy policy experts have also expressed deep concerns, including the Grattan Institute and the Law Council. The powers in the bill have not been requested by any of the agencies tasked with managing the energy market. In fact, the government commissioned the ACCC to inquire into and report on electricity prices, and they didn't recommend these powers. The Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills also raised concerns—in particular, about the reversal of the onus of proof in some of the offences contained in the bill.

But the bill is before us, and it is because the cabinet is full of bullies who want more legal power to push around their political opponents—and Labor cannot feign ignorance that they are supporting the government and handing over this bullying power. Contributions from government members during debate in the House of Representatives were explicit on this point. They said that the 'big stick' of the divestiture powers in the bill was necessary to stop AGL from refusing to sell Liddell power station instead of retiring it.

Both our major political parties are swimming against the tide of progress. By backing in coal and making it as hard as possible for low-cost, clean energy to power our cities and homes and our National Electricity Market, you are condemning Australian homes to higher power prices, you're cutting off the lifeline to energy-intensive industries that need cheap, abundant power to be competitive and you are worsening the climate emergency that is already wreaking havoc on people's lives, their homes and our bushland.

Just like for the farmers suffering through this frightening drought, clean energy is the only hope. That is why the Greens will unequivocally oppose this bill and it's why we've given notice that we will move some amendments to enable this bill to operate as it ideally should—not as just a mechanism to try and keep old coal-fired power clunkers going long past their use-by date.