6pm Debate – Queensland Labor’s ideologically driven 50 renewable energy target

25 Oct 2017 9:19 AMMichael Hart

Queensland Parliament Hansard Green

DATE: 24/10/2017

FILE: 24102017_000328_LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY_GREEN CHAMBER.DOCX

SUBJECT: (no subject found)

MEMBER: Mr HART

Mr HART (Burleigh—LNP) (5.59 pm): I move—

This House:

(a) notes analysis of modelling commissioned by the Climate Change Authority that a 50% renewable energy target will cost an average household almost $200 a year; and

(b) calls on the Palaszczuk government to ditch its similar ideologically driven policy that will hurt Queensland families with higher electricity bills.

The inconvenient truth for Labor was laid bare on the front page of the Australian today—

Government members interjected.

Mr HART: The Labor Party get all their news out of the paper. They cannot think of anything for themselves so they get it out of the paper. This was laid bare today. Labor’s extreme 50 per cent renewable energy policy will cost the average householder around $200 a year and will shut down 15 coal-fired power stations in Australia. Let us be clear: analysis of the work by the Climate Change Authority shows that a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 will cost families more. Every year from 2020 an average family will pay $192 more on their electricity bill.

It is only those opposite who do not understand that their ideologically driven 50 per cent renewable energy target will have a detrimental effect on Queensland families, businesses and industry. There are eight coal-fired power stations in Queensland. Those coal-fired power stations employ thousands of people.

Government members interjected.

Mr SPEAKER: Pause the clock. Members, I am having difficulty hearing the member for Burleigh, believe it or not.

Mr HART: Those jobs are under threat by Labor’s ideologically driven 50 per cent renewable energy target. As reported in the Australian today, 15 coal-fired power stations in Australia will close down. I know how the member for Nanango will feel about the possibility of a coal-fired power station in her electorate being closed down. I am pretty sure the member for Callide will completely agree with her. I wonder how the member for Gladstone will feel about the possibility of the Gladstone Power Station being closed down because of his government’s ideologically driven 50 per cent renewable energy target. I see that the member for Gladstone will speak in this debate. It will be very interesting to see how the member for Gladstone reacts to this.

How will the members for Mirani and Mackay feel about power stations in their areas closing down? They should be supporting this motion tonight because their electorates will be heavily affected by the possibility of power stations being closed down. I wonder how the member for Mirani will feel about some of his CFMEU mates in the coal industry losing their jobs because the coal-fired power stations closing down means they no longer need the coal.

Members of the Labor Party need to reconsider their ideologically driven 50 per cent renewable energy target. Labor’s own Productivity Commission has said that the 50 per cent renewable energy target in Queensland alone will cost about $10.8 billion worth of subsidies to get there. It will also cost about $6.2 billion worth of losses to the state owned generators in this state. How will Labor pay for the energy plan they announced today, which is supposedly coming from dividends from those generators and from other government owned power generators? How will they pay for these if their 50 per cent renewable energy target wipes out those dividends right at the start? We need to hear from those opposite exactly how they will pay for this.

If those opposite were serious, they would support us in building a new coal-fired power station in North Queensland. They would not be trying to push for the closure of coal-fired power stations in Queensland; they would be supporting us to build a new one in North Queensland. They would also be supporting our very sensible policy of putting pressure on the executives of our power companies to put downward pressure on electricity prices. Nobody believes the Minister for Energy when he says

that this is a one-cent-a-week deal. The minister has completely missed the whole intention of that policy. It is about changing the culture inside these companies. It is not about saving the money at all; it is about changing the culture. This motion needs to be supported.