E&OE….
Topics: Labor’s plans to bring back the carbon tax, Renewable Energy Target, passing of Don Randall
GREG HUNT:
What we’re seeing today is a desperate diversion from Bill Shorten from Labor’s massive new carbon tax. Now, it’s their written policy. We saw that in the papers last week when there was a massive leak of a massive plan for a massive new electricity tax. It’s their spoken policy – that’s been reaffirmed repeatedly that they are planning to bring in a carbon tax, although they call it an ETS, and it’s still their policy.
So Labor is desperately trying to divert from a carbon tax, which is their written policy, their spoken policy and it’s still their policy and it’s a policy for higher electricity prices. What we want to see is the detail about their carbon tax. They’ll pretend it’s not but they call it an ETS, the rest of Australia knows it is a carbon tax.
They were caught red-handed with a secret plan. We know it’s their plan because since then they’ve reaffirmed it is their plan for higher electricity prices. Everything Labor does leads to higher electricity prices and in the end it’s mums and dad who pay, it’s pensioners who pay, it’s small businesses who pay and it’s farmers that pay. Alright, any questions?
Look, I’ll add one more thing. We’ve heard from Ged Kearney, we’ve heard from Tony Maher of the CFMEU that respectively, they think it will cost jobs and lead to higher electricity prices for households and for manufacturing. Tony Maher from the CFMEU could not have been clearer. Labor is leading to higher electricity prices for households and for manufacturing.
So at the end of the day, the Coalition is the party of lower electricity prices, Labor is the party of higher electricity prices. They’ve got a plan for a carbon tax which is going to drive up electricity prices again for families. We removed the tax, we reduced prices by the largest amount in Australian history and now they’re bringing back the carbon tax and on Tony Maher’s own words, they’re bringing back a plan which is going to increase prices for households and for manufacturing.
JOURNALIST:
Minister, Butler says a higher renewables target will actually push down the power prices. Will it?
GREG HUNT:
Well if that were the case, why would they need to put it in law? If this was happening in any event, why did they just vote for a completely different figure? So Labor did one thing in the Parliament a month ago, now they’re saying they need a new law to make something which is lower cost more acceptable. It doesn’t make sense, it is going to cost more and their real plan of course is for a massive carbon tax because we saw it in their own shadow cabinet papers.
JOURNALIST:
Ok and when will the Coalition announce its renewables target beyond 2020?
GREG HUNT:
Well again this is one of these things from the ALP which isn’t correct. What we have now is a plan which actually runs out to 2030. The Renewable Energy Target runs right through to 2030. Labor knows that, the public knows that. This is a desperate diversion. They were caught red-handed, red-handed with a carbon tax last week, which was a secret. They said they wouldn’t tell the public how much it would cost. The public deserves to know how much will their electricity bills rise in the hands of Electricity Bill Shorten.
JOURNALIST:
And how much of our energy do you think we should get from coal in 2030?
GREG HUNT:
Well we’ll let that take its course over the coming years. What we’ve seen though is there has been a reduction and we have made changes, but we’ve done this without trying to drive businesses out of operation. What we want to do is work as we are on a sensible, sustainable path. This plan didn’t exist a week ago.
Labor was caught red-handed with a massive carbon tax as a result of a massive shadow cabinet leak. They’ve made this up on the run. Give us the facts – how much will it cost? Where’s the modelling? Where’s the detail? Where’s it going to be constructed? All of this has been done on the run because they’re desperately trying to hide the fact that they’ve got a carbon tax which is a massive electricity tax, which is a massive hit for families.
JOURNALIST:
Would you like to see the Renewable Energy Target to be lower? Would you like it to be lower?
GREG HUNT:
Look I think we have found the perfect sustainable solution. Alright, thank you very much. We’ve got to get back on the walk.
If I may say something about Don Randall. I’m really deeply shocked and genuinely upset for Don’s family and his friends. He was a good friend of mine and I was often in his electorate of Canning. He led the push for the Peel Harvey Natural Resource Management council. It was the only new land-based Natural Resource Management council in Australia.
He was a great lover of the environment, he was a passionate electorate man, but above all else, he was passionate about is staff and his family and I know a lot of people are really upset and it’s been a deep shock and he did a great job and he really will be missed. Thanks very much.
(ENDS)