VIDEO: QUESTION TIME - Monday 24th May 2021

Dr GILLESPIE (Lyne) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Will the minister outline to the House how the Morrison-McCormack government's plan for Australian families and businesses to have access to affordable, reliable energy that they rely on is working in our regions like the Hunter Valley, where David Layzell of the Nationals had a really good victory on the weekend? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

Mr TAYLOR (Hume—Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) (14:30): I thank the member for Lyne for his important question and for his steadfast commitment to affordable, reliable energy for the households in his electorate. He knows, as we all do on this side of this place, that our plan is working. There has been an 11 per cent reduction in retail electricity prices across the last 12 months. They are the lowest prices we've seen since the removal of the carbon tax, which was put in place by those opposite alongside their mates in the Greens. The member for Lyne also knows how important it is to put downward pressure on prices for those 900,000 Australian workers working in the manufacturing sector, including at places like the Tomago Aluminium smelter just outside his electorate. That's why, when the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley closes in 2023, we'll be replacing it with a 660 megawatt gas-fired generator at Kurri Kurri. We won't risk prices or reliability when Liddell leaves, because we know what happens without adequate replacement. That's good news for households and businesses right across the east coast. The Hunter power project will keep the lights on and drive prices down, and that's good news for jobs. It will create 600 direct construction jobs, 1,200 indirect jobs and, most important of all, the ongoing jobs of customers like the thousand people working at the Tomago smelter and the many thousands of others who are dependent on that operation.

There is plenty of support for this plan. The chief executive of Tomago says it's absolutely essential. The Australian Workers Union, no less: 'This announcement means the creation of hundreds of quality jobs.' The member for Hunter, who has been very busy over the last few days talking the project up, says, 'It's unequivocally a good idea'—good on him!—'the only way that we can fill the gap by Liddell.' The member for Paterson says, 'I'm not backing down on this one.'

I was asked about alternative approaches. The truth is Labor has no plan. It has no plan for energy and no plan for the replacement of the Liddell power station, and we saw what the people of the Hunter Valley over the weekend. The New South Wales Labor leader, Jodi McKay, asked a very important question. She said, 'Workers aren't voting for us. Why aren't workers voting for us?' The answer is just over there. The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Hindmarsh and now the member for McMahon—same old Labor.