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Spirits run high as energy debate dominates question time – politics live Spirits run high as energy debate dominates question time – politics live
(35 minutes later)
5.17am BST
05:17
Sarah Hanson-Young has had a bit to say about the ABC changes the government has proposed (with a little help from One Nation, and by help, we mean demands).
The Greens communications spokeswoman said in a statement:
Australians love and trust the ABC and are sick of seeing the public broadcaster used as political punching bag.
The Greens will fight to protect the ABC from this blatant ideological attack and will do everything we can to save our public broadcaster from the government and One Nation’s axe.
First it was Tony Abbott breaking his promise not to cut the ABC’s funding; now it’s Pauline Hanson wanting to dictate how the public broadcaster does its job and how it reports on news.
It was only a few months ago that Pauline Hanson crowed about going after the ABC as revenge for the broadcaster reporting the dodgy antics the One Nation political party gets up to.
Opening up the ABC’s charter to give more coverage to the loopy ideas of anti-vaxxers or anti-science is not about making the public broadcaster ‘fair and balanced’ – it’s revenge from One Nation senators who can’t handle the truth being reported.
I’m calling on Labor and the Nick Xenophon Team to join with the Greens in voting this toxic legislation down.
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5.15am BST
05:15
We finish on an “any alternative approaches” dixer for Darren Chester, where he links the Neg to regional development and then we are done.
Small mercies.
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5.13am BST
05:13
Michelle Rowland tries again (after a dixer).
“Is the prime minister so out of touch that he doesn’t understand the people are complaining because his second-rate copper NBN is slower, more expensive and less reliable than what the prime minister promised?
Malcolm Turnbull is once again very pleased to talk on this.
I thank the honourable member for the question because it gives me an opportunity to update my earlier answer. As of today, as of the 12 ... October, the latest numbers, 6 million people are able to connect to the NBN. Nearly 40,000, nearly 40,000 premises were activated on the NBN in the last week. Labor, remember, 50,000 in six years.
The reality is this: As the honourable member knows, and she should know this, that what has been going on is that retail service providers, Telstra, TPG, have not been buying enough bandwidth to provision their customers. That is being investigated by the ACCC. It has been called out. They have been given three months to get their act together and ensure that what they promise they deliver.
It has nothing to do with whether the network is fibre to the premises, fibre to the basement, fibre to the node, the problem of under provision by retail service providers is common across all technologies. The honourable member should recall that she was part of a government that completely and utterly failed this project.
They left us a train wreck. We have turned it around. We are getting it built. We are getting it built. Over 6 million premises can connect. Over 3 million are connected and it will be finished by 2020.
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5.10am BST
05:10
We have moved on to the the NBN and Malcolm Turnbull is very happy with Labor because it “gives me an opportunity to remind honourable members once again that every 10 days the NBN under our government is connecting more Australians than Labor did in six years”.
“We are connecting between 30,000 to 40,000 premises a week! 30,000 to 40,000 premises a week! There are now 3 million customers connected ... ”
Labor starts yelling “copper” but Turnbull continues – but it is nothing we haven’t heard before.
The NBN is available at more than 6 million premises.
It is on track to be completed by 2020.
It is “well past” the halfway mark.
He’s the rubber and you’re the glue.
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5.05am BST
05:05
Chris Bowen wants Scott Morrison to confirm that the “sum total” of documentation the opposition was provided was a single letter:
Given the opposition has received absolutely no other documentation modelling or evidence from the government, can the treasurer confirm that the cabinet and the joint party room considered and adopted a major government policy based purely on the vibe?
Morrison:
The shadow treasurer is such a terrible, sad sack! Here are the papers the government has available to us that are available to the opposition. The ACCC’s inquiry into gas, Mr Speaker, the interim report and its 75 pages, the ACCC’s report into retail electricity pricing, Mr Speaker, some 175 pages. The electricity statement of opportunities prepared which I tabled, Mr Speaker. The advice the commonwealth government on dispatchable capacity, Mr Speaker. I have now a document, a statement from the cChief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, on the Australian government’s energy announcement which he says, “The process was thorough, the emissions reduction trajectory has provided a credible ... ”
You get the idea.
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5.01am BST
05:01
Peter Dutton gets his dixer and, in a feat of verbal gymnastics, manages to link strong borders to energy policy.
But one of the things that all of these projects have in common, Mr Speaker, is they need reliable and affordable power. They must have reliable and affordable power and that is what the national energy guarantee provides, Mr Speaker. It means more capacity in the system. More supply, driving down the price, working with the other elements of the government’s energy policy which are also driving down price and driving up reliability.
Now, who could be against a policy that ensures reliability and drives down the price of energy, Mr Speaker? No sensible person would and that is why, as the minister for the environment and energy pointed out, there’s been so many third-party endorsements of this policy in the last 24 hours.
There are two people who are against it. There is the leader of the opposition, Mr Speaker, who is like the dog that caught the cow – he’s been demanding a policy on energy that would drive down prices and reliability and now he’s caught it, he doesn’t know what to do with it, Mr Speaker.
And he’s leading the Labor party into a very bad policy position because he is like the dog that caught the proverbial! The other person is the premier of South Australia, the premier of South Australia who just wants to pick a fight with Canberra!
It is here that I remind you that Tony Abbott is also against the policy. But I’m sure he’ll have more to say himself on 2GB a bit later.
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4.58am BST
04:58
Just a quick brush-up at the desk.
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4.52am BST4.52am BST
04:5204:52
Christian Porter takes a question on the energy supplement for carers asked to Malcolm Turnbull and manages to get Sam Dastyari into his answer. As you read this, please be advised there is a Chinese delegation sitting in the gallery, as welcomed by Tony Smith, who found this exchange quite interesting, given the amount of chatter which started up among them. Christian Porter takes a question on the energy supplement for carers asked to Malcolm Turnbull and manages to get Sam Dastyari into his answer. As you read this, please be advised there is a Chinese delegation sitting in the gallery, as welcomed by Tony Smith, who found this exchange quite interesting, given the amount of chatter that started up among them.
Was the Labor’s fiscal plan saving the supplement, banking it and spending it? Absolutely. What the member for Jagajaga does is gets up here and criticises the government for making a savings measure which they have made, which they have banked and which they have already spent. And in the process of doing so, the member for Jagajaga criticises the fact that the Energy Guarantee has the capacity to deliver a savings in 2020 each year of up to $115 a week. Now - a year -a year. The criticism of that is that - the criticism of that is it is not enough, Mr Speaker. In fact, Senator Dastyari tried to make that criticism today with a cheeseburger. I understand he was more of a Chinese food aficionado, but hear,hear! $115 a year is a potential saving to Australian households, it is actually significant. It might not be significant to members opposite who prefer Chinese food but a potential $115 a year saving is very significant. It is absolutely significant when you compare it to the potential cost increases for the average electricity bill that are going to occur if you try and put$66 billion worth of taxpayers’ money into subsidising renewables which members opposite also say don’t...” Was the Labor’s fiscal plan saving the supplement, banking it and spending it? Absolutely. What the member for Jagajaga does is gets up here and criticises the government for making a savings measure which they have made, which they have banked and which they have already spent. And in the process of doing so, the member for Jagajaga criticises the fact that the energy guarantee has the capacity to deliver a savings in 2020 each year of up to $115 a week. Now – a year – a year.
The criticism of that is that – the criticism of that is it is not enough, Mr Speaker. In fact, Senator Dastyari tried to make that criticism today with a cheeseburger. I understand he was more of a Chinese food aficionado, but hear, hear! $115 a year is a potential saving to Australian households, it is actually significant.
It might not be significant to members opposite who prefer Chinese food but a potential $115 a year saving is very significant. It is absolutely significant when you compare it to the potential cost increases for the average electricity bill that are going to occur if you try and put$66bn worth of taxpayers’ money into subsidising renewables which members opposite also say don’t …
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4.48am BST4.48am BST
04:4804:48
It might be prudent to point out that a Queensland election is expected to be called at any moment and Katter’s Australia Party is fighting One Nation off in its two Queensland electorates as I post this photo. It might be prudent to point out that a Queensland election is expected to be called at any moment and Katter’s Australian party is fighting One Nation off in its two Queensland electorates as I post this photo.
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4.46am BST4.46am BST
04:4604:46
Tanya Plibersek has the call and she asks Malcolm Turnbull about the promised drop in power prices made before coming to office, where “the Liberals promised Australians their power bills would drop by $550 a year. They didn’t.”Tanya Plibersek has the call and she asks Malcolm Turnbull about the promised drop in power prices made before coming to office, where “the Liberals promised Australians their power bills would drop by $550 a year. They didn’t.”
Scott Morrison has A LOT to say about this, but is hushed by the Speaker. Plibersek picks up where she left off, asking about the “lousy 50 cents a week in three years’ time. Why would the Australian people believe anything this prime minister says about energy prices?”Scott Morrison has A LOT to say about this, but is hushed by the Speaker. Plibersek picks up where she left off, asking about the “lousy 50 cents a week in three years’ time. Why would the Australian people believe anything this prime minister says about energy prices?”
Malcolm Turnbull decides to rest his voice; Josh Frydenberg takes the floor.Malcolm Turnbull decides to rest his voice; Josh Frydenberg takes the floor.
“Well, Mr Speaker, I thank the member for her question. And I can read from an ACCC report,” he begins.“Well, Mr Speaker, I thank the member for her question. And I can read from an ACCC report,” he begins.
(“Well done, Josh,” yells a Labor MP.)(“Well done, Josh,” yells a Labor MP.)
“I can read from an ACCC report which says about the abolition of the carbon tax the commonwealth treasuries estimated$550 cost saving to households is reasonable, Mr Speaker,” Frydenberg says.“I can read from an ACCC report which says about the abolition of the carbon tax the commonwealth treasuries estimated$550 cost saving to households is reasonable, Mr Speaker,” Frydenberg says.
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4.41am BST4.41am BST
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Barnaby Joyce gets his daily dose of dixer and picks up from yesterday with his attack on basket weavers, but unfortunately there is no update on Moonbeam and Dewdrop from the Manic Monkey Cafe, but we do get a history lesson:Barnaby Joyce gets his daily dose of dixer and picks up from yesterday with his attack on basket weavers, but unfortunately there is no update on Moonbeam and Dewdrop from the Manic Monkey Cafe, but we do get a history lesson:
And I want to quote someone from the Labor party who was talking about that Gladstone coal-fired power station. This member said this: “Naturally the Australian Labor party welcomes the commonwealth participation in the provision of electricity in central Queensland, which is an area where power has been hardest to come by and is the most expensive in Australia.”And I want to quote someone from the Labor party who was talking about that Gladstone coal-fired power station. This member said this: “Naturally the Australian Labor party welcomes the commonwealth participation in the provision of electricity in central Queensland, which is an area where power has been hardest to come by and is the most expensive in Australia.”
That member for the Labor party later went on to say about this: “The only problem he has with the coal-fired power is the advance was not a grant.”That member for the Labor party later went on to say about this: “The only problem he has with the coal-fired power is the advance was not a grant.”
Who was that member of the Labor party? Who could that be? Who could that be? I will take the interjection that said Mark Latham. Edward Gough Whitlam. Hasn’t the apple fallen a long way from the tree? The apple has gone all the way from central Queensland ... the basket weavers now run this – I can say to them, men and women ofAustralia, if you want to play, $66,000m then vote ... [Labor].Who was that member of the Labor party? Who could that be? Who could that be? I will take the interjection that said Mark Latham. Edward Gough Whitlam. Hasn’t the apple fallen a long way from the tree? The apple has gone all the way from central Queensland ... the basket weavers now run this – I can say to them, men and women ofAustralia, if you want to play, $66,000m then vote ... [Labor].
Some might think technologies have moved on since Whitlam’s time, but it’s good to have Joyce let those people know they are wrong.Some might think technologies have moved on since Whitlam’s time, but it’s good to have Joyce let those people know they are wrong.
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4.36am BST
04:36
Malcolm Turnbull is up again and being asked by Bill Shorten about the guarantee part of the national energy guarantee: just now the prime minister confirmed that his lousy 50 cent savings are only likely. Doesn’t this make a mockery of the prime minister’s so-called guarantee?”
I can ... understand the way in which the leader of the opposition is squirming on this issue. I can understand his embarrassment, having called for bipartisanship, having called for us to listen to experts, having support of the establishment of the Energy Security Board, then when these independent experts, authorities in the field give an advice that doesn’t suit him politically, he wants to attack them personally. He wants to challenge their integrity.
Yesterday, Mr Speaker, he was having a go at the integrity of the Energy Security Board. Muttering to himself, oh he was, I could hear him, muttering away to himself, talking to himself – that may well have been the case – you will get an attentive audience when he does that(!)
What we have is the advice from the Energy Security Board that will deliver affordable and reliable power. What it does is ensure that the energy market operator will not have to be as she is every other weekend intervening in the South Australian energy market calling on expensive gas-fired generation to keep the lights on because there is not enough dispatchable power in the South Australian market. What this will do is ensure that we have reliable power, that is affordable power and that we meet our emissions reduction obligations under the Paris agreement.
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4.31am BST
04:31
Bob Katter has stormed out of the chamber after he didn’t get to ask his whole question, because he ran out of time.
Here is out it went down:
Katter:
Prime minister, electricity prices in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia in the 13 years, 1989 to 2002, rose from $650 to $780, $113 in 13 years. In 2002 all pricing was done by free open market operations and the industry privatised. In the next 13 years, the price skyrockets from $810 to $2,130. A $1,300 increase. Clearly, the prime minister ...
The Speaker, Tony Smith:
The member for Kennedy will resume his seat. We will take that as a 45-second statement. We will go to the member for Chisholm.
Insert blow-up. While Katter yells that he is being “shut up” because the government doesn’t want to hear what he has to say, a comment which gets a round of applause from a gentleman in the public gallery which is not picked up by anyone else, Smith decides he has had enough.
The member for Kennedy has been asked to resume his ... The member for Kennedy will resume his seat. There was no question. There was no question. The member for Kennedy will resume his seat. The member for Kennedy will not reflect on the chair. The member for Kennedy, unlike members of the opposition, has additional time to ask a question. Special rules have been put in place to allow 45 seconds. And they were put in place principally for him. And there was 45 seconds of quotes and statements without a question. This is question time and I’m not going to be lectured by the member for Kennedy. The member for Chisholm has the call.
Katter tries to make a point of order, but he is ignored and then takes the parliamentary equivalent of picking up his bat and ball and walking home, by collecting his papers and storming out of the chamber.
And that just made filing from inside the chamber worth it, despite the neck strain.
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4.26am BST
04:26
Meanwhile, in the Senate:
Peter Whish-WIlson just called George Brandis "senator Brand-Arse" then apologised saying "that's just how I pronounce it" #auspol #SenateQT
For context, that is over Brandis’s insistence on pronouncing Richard Di Natale’s name with his own special inflections.
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4.24am BST
04:24
Malcom Turnbull returns to answer a Bill Shorten question on whether or not Kerry Schott, talking to Lateline overnight, was correct when she said: “I don’t think anybody can guarantee a price reduction.”
This is taken as an attack on Schott. Because of course it is.
Kerry Shott is one of our nation’s greatest public servants, energy experts, economists, mathematicians, and what she said on Lateline is absolutely correct and what honourable members opposite know is the case.
The fact of the matter is this: As she said, and as we know,there are many impacts on a household’s electricity bill. Wholesale prices are one important factor. But there’s also the matter of the price of fuel, which is not affected by this policy. The price of gas.
What did Labor do to gas? They sent the price through the roof. What have we done? We have brought the price of gas down by ensuring that Australians are protected and they get the gas they need.
Another big factor, too, is the cost of networks. That is not affected by the energy guarantee, it is a separate issue. That is being attacked by the abolition of the limited merits review, now through the parliament.
The reality is, as Rod Sims has said, as Kerry Schott has said, as we all know, except those in this parallel universe of ideology and political stupidity opposite, what we all know is that energy prices are affected by many measures.
This national energy guarantee will deliver lower wholesale prices than any alternative and that’s what Australians need, reliability, affordability and responsibility. We have a plan. Labor’s just got one whine after another.
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04:19
Scott Morrison gets a dixer and, in his answer, appears surprised that the opposition, would, well, oppose something the government has put forward:
Yesterday, we said yes to providing certainty for investment in boosting energy supply through the national energy guarantee that will make power more affordable, more reliable and achieve our environmental commitments. Business and industry have said yes to that, Mr Speaker. Economists have said yes to that, Mr Speaker. The chief scientist has said yes, Mr Speaker, to the national energy guarantee.
What has Labor done again? Labor has said no. Labor have no plans for investment certainty, they only have a plan to say no, Mr Speaker, on every single occasion as this government works to drive investment that support jobs,that supports certainty, that support higher-paid jobs and that support a growing economy, Mr Speaker.
What they do is they look for any excuse to say no, any and every excuse and they will sink to seeking to discredit and bully an Energy Security Board with people appointed by Labor state governments. And yet we have seen them in interview after interview seek to undermine those independently appointed members of that board, seeking to bully and intimidate like the unions they defend and protect for that behaviour in this place on every single day, Mr Speaker. The recipe from those opposite is higher taxes, higher subsidies, $66bn in higher costs for Australian business and consumers which ...
Sadly, we run out of time before we get to hear what that recipe creates.
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4.14am BST
04:14
It’s official– the government has decided on its three-word sell.
Affordable ✅ Reliable ✅ Responsible ✅ WATCH the PM on @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/cXDafferXo
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4.13am BST
04:13
Barnaby Joyce is his usual healthy shade of beetroot but Turnbull’s voice is already starting to fade. That’s the problem with the non-stop sell. Someone might need to pass him a Soother.
The Labor backbench is not as rowdy as the Coalition, as yet. But it is only just warming up. Turnbull takes a dixer on energy and gets to use his smartest people in the room quote again. One would assume he includes Alan Finkel in that, given that he is the chief scientist. We move on to Mark Butler and the affordability aspect of the Neg:
Last night when asked whether she would personally guarantee to the people of Australia that their energy bills will be cheaper in three years’ time under the prime minister’s latest energy policy, the chair of the Energy Security Board said: “I don’t think anybody can guarantee a price reduction.” When the chair of the government’s Energy Security Board can’t guarantee that energy prices will fall for households, why should the Australian people believe the prime minister’s so-called guarantee?
Turnbull is REALLY feeling the Halloween spirit. First werewolves, now scary movies:
One thing we can guarantee is that if you impose a $66bn subsidy on the Australian energy sector, and you get the taxpayers to pay for that, you can guarantee that electricity bills will be higher. If you continue to ignore the lead for dispatchable base-load power you will get more blackouts and then you will get more volatility.
We know how this Labor horror movie goes. It’s been playing in South Australia for years. We know what it does. They have no conception of the engineering and the economics that we need to deliver a reliable and affordable energy plan.
And as for Dr Shott, I can say to the Labor party, she can’t be intimidated. She is one of the finest public servants in this country. This is what she said, this is what she said: “The guarantee is about providing a reliable power system and meeting the emissions target set in the Paris agreement.”
What will happen when those mechanisms are put in price is prices are likely to come down and they are likely to keep coming down. That is exactly the same advice that we received in the letter from the Energy Security Board. The experts that we have been called on to listen to and take advice from.
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4.07am BST
04:07
The lols are coming early this question time. Bill Shorten opens with a question on the Coalition’s “latest energy policy” but can’t get it all the way out, because Josh Frydenberg is laughing harder than a middle-aged man watching Monty Python.
Malcolm Turnbull, obviously feeling the Halloween spirit, gets a little supernatural with his answer.
Earlier today the leader of the opposition stood in front of some solar panels. And for a little while he was talking sense and then a beam of sunlight struck the panel and he was transformed, not into a werewolf but an economic fantasist.
This is what he said. Renewable energy is getting cheaper – he did. He said it’s correct to say we have been moving down the renewable energy path and we are seeing the benefits and he said it needs to be subsidised!
Now, Mr Speaker, this is the bit that we are struggling to understand. Mr Speaker, his comrade in arms, his comrade in arms was of course the member for Sydney. She said, she’s even more emphatic, she said the renewables are becoming cheaper all the time and are already cheaper than coal. Kieran Gilbert [from Sky] was not asking an unreasonable question when he said, “So why subsidise them?” She said, “It is not about subsidies, it is about certainty.”
This is the Labor party. It is about certainty. $66bn of cost loaded on to Australian families and Australian businesses in order to subsidise technologies that are already the cheapest alternative, according to the Labor party.
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3.55am BST
03:55
Question time is almost upon us.
Taking a look at the morning’s events, energy will once again be the name of the game. But with the telecommunication ombudsman report, the NBN will most likely get a go as well.
I’m going to try to report on QT from the chamber, so wish me luck. If there are tech problems, you can bet I will be getting my running shoes on for you.
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3.51am BST
03:51
You’ll find the amendments Gareth Hutchens had mentioned on the citizenship bill here.
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