Subjects: Queensland police tragedy; Labor’s hollow energy deal; the government’s energy and gas policy trainwreck; the government’s broken promise on a $275 cut to your power bills; gas supply; cost of living pressures.
E&OE
DAVID LIPSON:
Peter Dutton, can I start first with your reaction to this very sad news of a shooting in Queensland where two police officers and a member of the public have been killed?
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, David. Look, I think people are always devastated but not surprised in the modern world when you hear of these stories. The tragedy obviously is with the loss of the police officers and the innocent neighbour as well, but also the families who will live with this devastation forever. It’s a life sentence for them, and obviously the police who were involved in the containment of the scene, the work that they did to bring the issue to a close last night, they will be scarred by their experiences forever.
So, there is just no good that comes of an incident like this, and it’s particularly confronting for police, because if you’re going into a scene where you know there are firearms involved, then there is a level of awareness and escalation; whereas if you’re just attending an address and walking up the driveway and you’re gunned down in cold-blooded execution style, then that will send to shudder down the spine of any police officer attending any scene around the country today, because it will be an awakening to the reality of modern police work. Our thoughts and prayers are just with those that have lost their lives and those who have been involved in this terrible incident.
DAVID LIPSON:
Turning to the government’s energy intervention proposal, why is the Coalition standing in the way of a plan that Treasury says would ease power bill price rises by $230?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, David, I think we should be very clear, firstly that the government went to an election with a promise that it made on 97 occasions to reduce power prices by $275. They had five months to work out between the election and the October budget how they were going to deliver on that promise. Australians reasonably believed that there would be a plan outlined in the budget – there was no such plan. In fact, in the budget the government predicted after two years that electricity prices would rise by 56 per cent and gas by 44 per cent. So, people were shocked, and I think because of the shock out of the budget, the government now has cobbled together a policy. They’ve flown every kite on every possible iteration over the course of the last couple of weeks, and it’s clear that this plane is still being built mid-air. They don’t know and they can’t say with any certainty what the number will be, whether there will be savings for households…
DAVID LIPSON:
Well, Treasury says that saving would be $230?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, the Prime Minister won’t back that up because he’s still hedging his bets as to what it will be, because I suspect he doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice. He’s never mentioned the figure of $275 again since the election, and now the $230 is an estimate, but it’s not based on a final plan. Treasury have again been instructed – I think at short notice, it seems – to put something together to try and get the government out of a political bind, and the problem is that Australian families are paying the price for their inaction.
DAVID LIPSON:
You’ve said the solution lies in boosting supplies of gas, but as you know, it takes years to develop new gas fields. So, what do you think should be done in the short term to bring down power bills?
PETER DUTTON:
Well David, a couple of things. I mean, firstly, we know that there’s more demand for gas because coal is being switched off and there’s a greater reliance on gas. We don’t have another way to firm up the renewables in the system – hydrogen is not a reality, hydro has limited application – and we know that there’s a debate that we should have as a country on nuclear, but we’re not there yet. So, most other developed economies – comparable economies to ours – use nuclear or another means to firm up. So, we need to have firming up capability and capacity within the system to facilitate the renewables, that is very clear to all. So, the government knows all of these facts.
In the budget they provided funding to activist groups to take legal action against new gas discoveries, new gas fields coming online. So, it’s obvious that the government has at the intent of their policy to actually reduce the amount of gas in the system at a time when you’ve got increased demand. So don’t be surprised that prices go up. Let’s not pretend that this is going to have a huge beneficial impact on the economy or for people on fixed incomes, etcetera. The government could easily enter into…
DAVID LIPSON:
The question though was about how you would address, in the short term, these soaring power bills. How should that be done?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, David, the point is that the government could easily enter into arrangements to bring more gas on, which would create, I think, an environment where they could negotiate with the gas providers. I think that’s obvious. I think the companies are willing to negotiate. They were with us when we were in government. You didn’t see these sorts of disruptions, market interventions, when we were in government. But we’re heading down the path that Germany is on at the moment. That is that we’re going to see a disruption to supply over the course of the next two to three to five years’ time. We’re going to see increases year on year in electricity and gas prices, and it’s largely because the government, for ideological reasons, wants to remove gas from the system at a time when we’ve got increased demand and that is going to increase the price. So, I don’t think the government has a clue what they’re doing here. It’s obvious that the Prime Minister can’t answer the most basic of questions. Are they after a political fix, or a wedge here, or are they looking for an opportunity to help families?
DAVID LIPSON:
Peter Dutton, we’ll have to leave it there. Thanks for your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure, David.
[ends]