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senate vote 2023-09-05#12
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-01-12 10:45:26
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Title
Matters of Urgency — Energy- Matters of Urgency - Energy - Criticise Government
Description
<p class="speaker">Dorinda Cox</p><p>The President has received the following letter from Senator McDonald:</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2023-09-05.174.2) introduced by Queensland Senator [Susan McDonald](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/susan_mcdonald) (Nationals), which means it failed.
- ### Motion text
- > *That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:*
- >
- > *The failure of the Albanese Government to secure affordable and reliable energy, as highlighted in Australian Energy Market Operator's 2023 Electricity Statement of Opportunities, which is resulting in Australians paying some of the most expensive energy bills in the world for increasingly unreliable power.*
<p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The failure of the Albanese Government to secure affordable and reliable energy, as highlighted in Australian Energy Market Operator's 2023 Electricity Statement of Opportunities, which is resulting in Australians paying some of the most expensive energy bills in the world for increasingly unreliable power.</p><p>Is the proposal supported?</p><p> <i>More than the number of </i> <i>senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p> <p class="speaker">Susan McDonald</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The failure of the Albanese Government to secure affordable and reliable energy, as highlighted in Australian Energy Market Operator's 2023 Electricity Statement of Opportunities, which is resulting in Australians paying some of the most expensive energy bills in the world for increasingly unreliable power.</p><p>One of the great truisms of government, as well as of business, is that a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and that is exactly what the Albanese government has delivered for Australians. The Albanese Labor government promised Australian households—not once, not twice but 97 times—that it would reduce electricity prices by $275. Not only has the government broken this promise, broken its trust with Australians, but electricity prices are continuing to spiral out of control. It is not just in the home that we're seeing recent increases of around $500; now small businesses are also being hit with these terrific uncapped costs. Businesses tell me, as they would be telling members of this government, that they don't have a choice as to whether or not to pay rent, to pay for electricity, to pay for the insurance. So, what do they have to do? They have to cut wages costs. They have to cut the things they can manage. And that is bad for their business.</p><p>This is an extraordinarily bad business government, and it threatens the 30 per cent of people around this nation who are employed in small business. I have a been told that one in 10 Australians are already unable to pay their electricity bills, and it's going to get worse, because this is a dangerous pathway. It's dangerous for households, it's dangerous for business and it's dangerous for all Australians, given that we live in a nation of extraordinary resources. One of our great growth periods was when we tapped into our terrific coal and gas resources to have affordable—in fact, cheap—electricity. It allowed us to invest into manufacturing, into agricultural production, into mining. This is something Labor fails to understand.</p><p>In my recent 2½ weeks in Western Australia I saw project after project that has been crippled by a lack of energy supply. Whether they're trying to hook up renewable projects to transmission lines that don't exist or whether they're trying to negotiate the connection of new power sources, they are paying tens of millions of dollars—money that should be going to more employment in their business, to more contractors, to more small businesses for their local-buy content. Instead, it is being wasted on trying to secure what should be our greatest resource: affordable electricity.</p><p>There is no plan under Labor to transition to renewable energy—not in a way that is in any way affordable for Australians. I can see those on the other side laughing. Well, they're not paying the bills that mean that people are choosing whether to go ahead with their business, whether to keep people employed. 'Blackout Bowen', the minister from the other house, must be the most incompetent minister of his generation. His failure to manage the energy system, his failure to continue supplying the very affordable, reliable electricity that Australians were able to enjoy means that Labor's energy plan—Australia's baseload power—is shutting down faster than it can be replaced, increasing the risk of blackouts as soon as this summer. Do you know what that means? It means households and businesses are buying generators and filling them up with diesel in order to ensure that they have the basics that we expect for our lives—to be able to keep the fridge on, to be able to keep food safe, to be able to keep an air-conditioner on in a home or, if you have a medical condition, to be able to keep yourself plugged in.</p><p>This is an extraordinary situation from a government who should be taking responsibility for Australians but instead gives us this grand rhetoric. These renewable energy projects have instead been stalled. Australians are angry, and rightly so, because they are being sold out by this Labor government—sold out when there is no need for it.</p> <p class="speaker">Nita Green</p><p>I'm always very pleased to stand in the Senate and talk about energy and talk about our policies as a government, because only an Albanese Labor government is implementing overdue policy reform to deliver cheaper, cleaner, more-reliable energy to our system. And it is difficult to take seriously a motion from a party that led a decade of denial, a decade of delay and a decade of leadership spills based purely on an ideological view that they couldn't settle an energy policy. They had 22 energy policies and three leadership spills—four if you want to throw the Nationals in too—all because they couldn't agree on what we needed to do to fix our energy market, and now they want to come in here and talk to Australians about affordable and reliable energy when we know that for over a decade they failed to do what was required.</p><p>While the former government put their heads in the sand and ignored repeated calls to bring on new supply and transmission, we are acting to ensure Australia's energy grid is fit for purpose for the 21st century. When it comes to power bills, we took urgent action to shield Australian families and businesses from the worst of global energy price spikes. Our energy bill relief rebates were targeted to more than five million households doing it the toughest and will provide additional hundreds of dollars off bills for everyday Australians. That is energy price bill rebate relief that those opposite voted against. They voted in this chamber for higher energy prices for Australians doing it tough, and now they want to come in here and pretend that they care about those very Australians and energy bills they are receiving.</p><p>I'm glad that we've had an opportunity to talk about AEMO's <i>2023 electricity statement of opportunities</i>, which was released last week, because the report was clear, despite the misinformation you might hear today from those opposite, about the Albanese government's plan to turbocharge renewables, which is even more critical than ever following a decade of coalition energy inaction and neglect. The report clearly outlines that the federal and state government policies, including Rewiring the Nation and the Capacity Investment Scheme, are more important than ever, more important than ever to increase supply and reduce the risk of shortfalls across the country. This is an important report and it's one that our government is taking seriously.</p><p>It begs the question. I thought, 'Surely this isn't the first time we've seen a report like this published by the energy market regulator,' and it's not. In 2017 the same report was published, and it said that it confirmed the need for additional investments and new approaches to ensure AEMO has a reliable portfolio of dispatchable energy. In 2017 they said that, but did the Liberal-National do anything? Well, I think they were preparing to spill another leadership, but they didn't do anything to make sure that we had dispatchable power. In 2018 the same report was released with the same request for more reliable energy, and those opposite did nothing in government. In 2019 the same report said there was a continued elevated risk of expected unserved energy over the next 10 years as well as forecast tight electricity supply and demand conditions in several states for the upcoming summer, and those in government did nothing in response to that report. The same report in 2020 called for the same risk to be managed, and in 2021 the same report said the NEM will need more generation, storage and transmission than is currently operating, and what did those opposite do? They rolled Michael McCormack when Scott Morrison was looking likely to commit to net zero. That's how those opposite have approached these reports. Our government is approaching this report in a completely different way: by making sure that, when it comes to affordable and reliable energy, our government has the policies and is making the investment to fix the mess left by a decade of division and denial from those opposite.</p><p>When it comes to reducing energy bills, those opposite are pursuing the most expensive form of power—nuclear—which will take the longest to build. How's that Collinsville Power Station, Senator Hughes? Have we built the Collinsville Power Station yet, Senator Canavan? We took action to provide bill relief when we were given the chance, but those opposite voted against it.</p> <p class="speaker">Pauline Hanson</p><p>The government's plan is to close every coal-fired power station in Australia and replace the dispatchable power they provide with the electricity generated by a combination of solar, wind and stored green hydrogen. What could go wrong? Let's look at South Australia, where the plan is most advanced—so they think! Electricity prices in the state are the highest in Australia, and are increasing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country. Much of South Australia's energy comes from wind and solar, but in the second quarter of 2023 this required back-up from gas 36 per cent of the time. In short, almost two million people in South Australia would have a been subject to rolling blackouts without natural gas. South Australia's current energy situation represents the future every other state is moving towards, in what can only be called an 'economic suicide pact'. If not coal, gas is essential to back up solar or wind generated electricity but, despite having some of the largest reserves of gas in the world, it's in very short supply in Australia. We keep exporting too much of it and foreigners pay far less for Australian gas than we do. My bill to create a domestic gas reserve, which I have introduced today, would guarantee supply and lower prices.</p><p>I now want to return to the government's plan to replace gas with green hydrogen. It's a plan that exists on a paper napkin, pie-in-the-sky stuff, and we have all been there before—namely, with the NDIS. There is no business plan for any part of the hydrogen idea, including restarting the national electricity grid following a major blackout. How do I know that? In September 2016, the first statewide blackout happened in South Australia. The state could not restart its own grid because there was no power to pressurise the gas into a turbine. The power came from an old coal-fired power station in Victoria, one of the few still operating and not being blown up yet. When all the coal-fired power stations are closed, what will we do to restart the grid? The government says that Snowy 2.0 will come to the rescue but, personally, I would recommend all households keep a supply of candles. The project has come to a complete standstill, with the tunnelling machine stuck for more than a year and no resolution in sight. This project is facing a blowout now estimated at $12 billion, thanks to poor policy and business planning.</p><p>Before I finish, I want to talk about the plan for green hydrogen to replace natural gas. Again, no business plans are available. This year the government announced $2 billion for the National Hydrogen Strategy, without a business plan or any modelling. This was either brave or stupid. The only beneficiary of the government's subsidy will be billionaire Andrew Forrest. Oh, yes—is he a 'yes' campaigner? Yes! Unless you can produce hydrogen for less than $2 a kilogram, it will never stack up economically. Labor in South Australia has committed more than $600 million to a green hydrogen plant at Whyalla, again without a business case. What could go wrong? The same as what happened to the state in 2016.</p><p>Australians need to wake up to green energy fantasies invented by emotionally driven climate change activists and children brainwashed through our educational system, who say the world is coming to an end—fantasies that are not even remotely based on evidence or science but on the vote and financial gains. These are pipedreams driven by green fearmongering. They sound wonderful and they sound too good to be true. That's because they're not true. And the ones who will end up paying for it all with more taxes and record high energy prices will be the Australian people. It looks like we'll have to give up those creamy barista coffees and go back to opening tins of grandma's International Roast! And we'll have to sacrifice a great deal more on the altar of the climate change cult. The people of Australia are fed up with paying the rising costs in electricity. It irks me to hear the Labor Party blame the coalition for the escalating prices in electricity when Labor keep putting 28,000 kilometres of power lines across the country, against the will of the people of this nation, because they're pushing their own agenda that doesn't stack up.</p><p>People understand that electric cars won't stack up because we don't have the minerals in this nation after more than one generation to build electric cars. So they're going to control the people in this nation, but the fact is they're destroying this nation. The Greens and the Labor Party are destroying the people of this nation.</p> <p class="speaker">Hollie Hughes</p><p>The anticipation! And I'm a bit disappointed I'm following Senator Hanson; I was fired up to follow Senator Green, and the amount of rubbish that we hear coming from the other side. But then I hear sense coming from Senator Hanson at the far end of the chamber and I start to breathe again. I would like to thank Senator Hanson for getting me worked up again when she mentioned we may not be able to get a coffee anymore—back to International Roast. I can tell you, that is not happening.</p> <p class="speaker">James McGrath</p><p>There is nothing wrong with International Roast!</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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