Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
Senator DUNIAM (Tasmania—Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (10:39): I seek leave to move a motion relating to the referral of the Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 to a Senate inquiry, as circulated. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bragg ): We're in the second reading debate. Senator DUNIAM: Well, I will scratch what I've just said and get on with the second reading debate.
You're going to be in for a lovely morning, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, when we think we know what's going on we clearly don't. That's because of what has just happened here, colleagues, with this Labor-Greens dodgy dirty deal on a Thursday—the last sitting Thursday of this parliamentary term.
What we have just seen in their attempt to ram this ridiculous piece of legislation through the Senate is, as I said before, a window into the future, a crystal ball moment in which we know exactly what's going to happen under a Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Bandt government. It will be a Labor-Greens government where we will, of course, be left with a Greens tail wagging a Labor dog.
Bringing this bill on to have it rammed through the parliament today was contrived as part of some dodgy deal between the two coalition parties: the Australian Labor Party, the former friend of the worker; and the Australian Greens political party. You had the Manager of Government Business in the Senate and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in here watching over to make sure that this deal was brought to fruition.
It's very disappointing to see this. We have Australian households in a cost-of-living crisis. The reality is that the legislation before us, the Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, does nothing to address the problems that we have in this country.
Any occupant of this chamber—any senator from anywhere in the country—would be aware of the fact that Australians are struggling under the cost of living. One of the biggest portions of the pressure that these households and businesses are facing is energy prices. This is not a new problem.
This is something Australians have now been struggling with for the better part of 2½ years. Before the last election, the Prime Minister told Australians 97 times that their power prices would go down by $275 a year. It's a figure that, in a very Trotskyite type of way, the Labor Party have tried to scratch from history.
No-one refers to this $275 figure anymore. It's like it never happened. But, of course, it was a key element in the promises that was made to Australian households.
It was a key element of the Australian Labor Party's offering to the Australian people. I remember the Prime Minister saying to Australians, 'My word is my bond.' His word was, in this case, that, when it came to power prices, Australians would be $275 better off under his government than under the alternative. Well, if we fast-forward the clock and we forget about the 97 times that promise was made on this issue—that is, again, just for clarity, that Australian households and businesses would be $275 better off—the reality is that here we are, nearly three years on from the election, and it's gone in the opposite direction.
On average, we have households now paying $1,000 more per year than they were at the date when that promise was made. Far from being just a broken promise, it is an abject failure of government to do what they owe to the Australian community. It isn't just about honouring promises, about making sure that the bond that was offered to the Australian people is honoured; it's about actually doing the right thing by Australian households and finding ways to bring down energy prices.
With that as context, why are we here, on the eve of an election, debating legislation that will do nothing to help the government honour its election promises and nothing to help Australian households with the burden of skyrocketing power prices, amongst all of the other cost-of-living issues we have? It is because, as I said before, we are staring into the looking glass at what a Labor-Green government would look like.
It demonstrates the tone-deaf nature of this Labor-Green outfit that, in all the contributions we hear—I wonder whether we will hear about the cost of living from government speakers on this legislation. I'm not wondering whether we will hear about the cost of living from Greens speakers. That is not part of their lexicon.
They do not refer to this issue that impacts most Australians, because it doesn't suit their narrative. And that is because, when you go with Greens ideals, when you follow the Greens path, when the Labor dog is being wagged by the Greens tail, nothing helps with the cost of living. As I said earlier when we were debating whether we should be rushing this legislation through—legislation, I might also point out, that will not be subject to any legislative scrutiny now because of this dodgy dirty deal—when you follow the Greens pathway, as this government sadly is today under the supervision of the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, who were here watching to make sure that the Greens got their wishes, you can be guaranteed that Australians will be worse off.
Anything the Greens say is a good idea you can take as read is a bad idea. It is anti-jobs, it is anti cost-of-living relief and it is against what Australians actually need. To have a party of government teaming up on the eve of an election to give effect to this terrible, economically destructive, job-destroying agenda that applies further pressure to households is, frankly, an alarming development.
But it is not surprising. As we head off from this building this afternoon, I suspect we won't be coming back, given the government's desire to pass all of this legislation in a hurried fashion and to tick the boxes with their inner-city-elite voters, who like the sorts of things that this government is trying to rush through. This is a preview of what we will have from this government.
Senator Ayres: More electricity, good jobs. Senator DUNIAM: I'll take the interjection from the assistant minister. He says that we will have more electricity.
Well, I'm afraid we have a situation where we are facing blackouts because of the unreliability of the source of generation that this government chooses, which is intermittent and unreliable, to the exclusion of all other technologies, and they refuse to talk about other technologies. They don't want to work with coal energy generators to extend the life of power stations.
They don't want to actually work with gas producers to bring more on for domestic consumption because, of course, in the cities— Senator Ayres interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bragg ): Order! The interjections are disorderly. Senator DUNIAM: Unless I take them, of course.
Unfortunately, the assistant minister is incorrect because he, like all of his colleagues, lives in an alternative universe. They don't do anything about the cost of living, and this legislation will not help at all. It will not help with grid reliability; it will not help with expanding the offering of energy available to the grid.
You go out and talk to manufacturers as well. We've gone to talk to manufacturers— Senator Ayres: Go and tell that to the people of Bell Bay— Senator DUNIAM: I might just take that interjection. Senator Ayres: It's the Dutton plan to offshore aluminium.
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Duniam, resume your seat. Minister, as you know, interjections are very disorderly, so I ask you to restrain yourself, please.
Senator DUNIAM: Those interjections were disorderly but amusing nonetheless because they are a glimpse into the alternative universe that this government lives in driven by green ideology rather than reality. They talk about offshoring aluminium manufacturing. Can I say, when you've got a government that brings in this draconian safeguard mechanism, which is offshoring aluminium smelting jobs, if you go out and talk to the high-vis army working in these smelters, they will tell you what this government's policies have done.
They will tell you what the cost of energy is doing to their capacity to manufacture in this country. They will tell you what it's doing to their workforce, which is decreasing because we are being outpriced by our competitors from countries where they don't care about the environment, emissions or workers rights. Those opposite are happy to see that happen all in the name of green ideology because they know, as every pollster does, as the bookies know and as we are tracking today, that the Labor Party is set to win in minority with the Greens political party down the end.
Therefore, we need to make sure that they think we're on the same page before the election. We are going to see the offshoring of jobs under this plan, and if the minister or any other government senator wants to tell me—or workers in smelters in Bell Bay, for that matter—that this legislation is going to help them then I would love to know what happens when we exclude all other sources of energy generation, as this government does.
They exclude consideration of every other technology and every other source of energy generation because it is all about the green agenda, as I said. The green agenda is failing Australians, but it is one this government has signed up to. You've got to understand that, if you go out doorknocking, people aren't saying, 'Yes, I know it's going to cost a bit more, but we'll go along with it; I know it might affect grid reliability, but we'll go along with it.' They're saying, 'No, please honour your promise and bring down power prices by $275.' That's what they're after, that's what they were promised, and I don't think it's wrong for us to point that out.
When you talk to manufacturers who struggle with the cost of compliance with the safeguard mechanism and struggle with these skyrocketing electricity prices and industrial relations laws which have made the ability to compete internationally very, very difficult, they're not saying, 'This government has got our interests at heart.' Therefore, by extension, the government does not have those manufacturers' employees' interests at heart, because what does an employee in a company want?
They want a job, but we are eroding certainty around employment. This legislation will absolutely harm the capacity of people in Bell Bay. Senator Ayres interjecting— Senator DUNIAM: It'll harm the capacity of people on the West Coast of Tasmania at the MMG mine or, of course, the Port Latta— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Bragg ): Point of order, Senator O'Sullivan?
Senator O'Sullivan: I'm only seated about a metre away from Senator Duniam, and I am struggling to hear him over the interjections from the minister, no less, sitting over on the other side. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I think the degree of interjection is quite high at the moment, so I ask you to restrain yourself, please, Minister. Senator DUNIAM: Normally we do listen in respectful silence, of course, but it is hard to restrain yourself when you're confronted with the truth.
It is very, very hard. As I was saying, if you go to the Port Latta pelletising plant in Braddon, I'll tell you what: they're not looking at this legislation and going, 'Yes, this is excellent for us; it's going to help us keep operating here, in a globally competitive environment where prices are going down overseas, our dollar is making it hard to export and, of course, the prices of doing things here in this country—to manufacture what it is we take out of the ground and value-add to—are going up.' They are now drawing big question marks over their operations, because of government policy.
That's in the seat of Braddon. That's a very, very important seat. In the seat of Lyons, you've got this government—in addition to driving up power prices, as it will with this bill—casting uncertainty over a range of industries, including the salmon industry.
Here we are, on the eve of an election, with a government that will stick its head in the sand to deny the claims being made not just by us here in opposition but by employers out there who, of course, want to do well, which in turn means employees do well. They have jobs, they can pay their bills and they get paid more when they are able to compete on the international stage.
But we are pricing them out of the market, and that's what industry is saying. They have said it countless times, whether it relates to the Nature Positive Plan—this ridiculous green agenda—to the safeguard mechanism, which is also part of the green agenda this government has adopted, or to the industrial relations changes which were rammed through without much consultation with industry.
Here we are now furthering the green ideology this government has adopted, again demonstrating how out of touch it is with Australian businesses and Australian workers. I don't think there will be many people in regional communities celebrating what this legislation does. You can almost be guaranteed that anything the Australian Greens back is bad for jobs, apart from in the inner city or perhaps in government run offices.
So that is always a warning sign, as well as the fact that the government is so happily signing up to this and happily allowing the Greens to run the agenda here today. We've got to remember that it was the Greens who moved a motion to ensure that debate on this legislation concludes today—that they get their bill through—and we tried to ensure that there would be scrutiny applied to these bills.
But, of course, all of the shrill cries about what happened over the course of the last couple of days don't matter anymore, particularly when it comes to our little Greens-Labor agenda. In conclusion, we've just been given another glimpse into what the world will look like if we, unfortunately, wake up the day after the election with a Labor-Greens government.
It will be bad for our economy, bad for jobs and, most importantly, as demonstrated by the legislation pushed in here and pushed through the Senate by the Greens, bad for the cost of living. I think Australians need to know that. I'm pleased we had, what, a dozen votes this morning where Labor and the Greens voted together to get their green ideology across the line, because that's exactly what the world is going to look like after they get their hands on the Treasury benches together.