Tuesday, 20 September 2022

Energy policy

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (10:40): Energy prices are at an all-time high in Australia and are set to climb ever higher. We are already seeing power bills skyrocket in Europe as countries blunder into unreliable renewables—the fever dream of the Energiewende. The average energy bill in the UK is set to increase by 80 per cent up to A$6000 a year. The Liberal Democrats understand that a key driver in tackling poverty is low-cost energy. As energy prices increase, so does the price of everything else. It is not just your heat and power bills; every single thing you buy is produced and transported using petrol, electricity and gas. Expensive energy crushes manufacturing and destroys jobs. Because of government policy, housing and energy costs continue to rise. Wages are falling while taxes are increasing. Australians are being crushed by their own governments. The Liberal Democrats are the only party that can see that government is the problem, not the solution. We will end the disastrous schemes and subsidies that destroy the incentives to develop low-cost energy, we will end the many billions of dollars of rorts and we will cut taxes and red tape so affordable production can get underway. We will also reduce the prohibitions on nuclear energy to allow safe, clean, low-cost, reliable power to be produced in Victoria. It is not the 1970s anymore. We need to move past irrational fears and look to the future. Nuclear is Victoria’s only realistic option for decarbonising the economy without destroying our economy and plunging us all into poverty and misery. The Liberal Democrats positive vision for Victoria includes low-cost energy and a wealthy population.