BEN DAVIS:
I’ve got the Prime Minister on the line, Malcolm good afternoon.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good afternoon Ben, great to be with you.
BEN DAVIS:
What brings you to God’s country?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, coming up to see the great work we’re doing on infrastructure on the M1 and the Bruce Highway, to meet with Queenslanders and we’ll be getting out with my colleagues, our MPs from Queensland and Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast - eleventh visit to Queensland this year.
BEN DAVIS:
Alright, well what’s on the itinerary? What’s on the agenda?
PRIME MINISTER:
Firstly, we’ll be talking about energy with Trevor Evans tomorrow, that’s the key issue of course, right around Australia but…
BEN DAVIS:
Very much so.
PRIME MINISTER:
…you’ve been having a very rough time with the conduct of the Labor Government there in Queensland, of course they were using the state generators as essentially cash cows and Queenslanders were paying the price.
Now, Josh Frydenberg the Energy Minister, my Energy Minister and I put some pressure on the Queensland Government, called them out and they changed their instructions to the generators and we’ve actually seen wholesale prices come down somewhat. But there’s a lot more to be done on the energy front.
Annastacia Palaszczuk, I believe she’s thinking about having an election soon, well, hopefully she’ll be able to explain how she’s going to meet a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 when Queensland currently has about 4 per cent renewable – so that’s going to be pretty interesting, who’s going to pick up the tab for that?
BEN DAVIS:
Well I’m glad you mentioned renewables. Any closer, is your Cabinet any closer to deciding whether you’ll reduce the subsidies for renewables?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we’re working through - we have a renewable energy target, as you know, that goes through to 2020. So we’re not going to be making any change to those existing arrangements…
BEN DAVIS:
You’re getting a push from your backbench to make those changes, in fact I heard Tony Abbott speak to my colleague Ray Hadley this morning, saying that we’re almost at risk of de-industrialising our country with our obsession to reduce emissions.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, I won’t comment on that other than to say that we have a renewable energy target that was actually put in place by Tony Abbott in 2015 and it was legislated and that is in place until 2020. What we are looking at is the future policy after 2020 through to 2030. We’ve already made a number of very important decisions.
Firstly, I mentioned how we’ve succeeded in causing the Queensland Government to run its generators more responsibly. We’ve also of course called the retailers in and given thousands of Australians the opportunity to get a better deal. So you’ll probably have a few friends who’ve had this experience, who’ve got onto Energy Made Easy, got letters from the retailers at our instigation and are saving you know, 300, 400, 500, 600 dollars a year.
BEN DAVIS:
But Prime Minister, I mean that’s nibbling at the edges and…
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s about a quarter of the bill, it’s a pretty big nibble!
BEN DAVIS:
But when you see a story like on the front page of today’s Australian, where we’re giving $300 million to a Saudi billionaire, you can understand, to make a solar farm which is going to provide less than 1 per cent of our nation’s power, you can see why people aren’t happy about this.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I can see that that’s part of the Renewable Energy Target scheme, it was legislated and, as I said, it was amended and legislated and confirmed only a couple of years ago in 2015 and there’s a lot of investment, billions of dollars of investment have been made, in reliance on it. That is providing additional generation capacity. You might say the terms of which it’s being provided are too generous, but they are in law.
BEN DAVIS:
Well, they are.
PRIME MINISTER:
They are there and you’re not going to be able to change it between now and 2020. The question is what we do subsequently.
BEN DAVIS:
Can you pull it back after 2020?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, after 2020, the target is met and then, so it’s a 2020 target, and it’s met then and the renewable energy certificates continue through to 2030. But there’s no more construction after the target is met, so it caps out in 2020 which is obviously only a couple of years away.
BEN DAVIS:
Do you think you’re going to have a problem with the Nationals as far as the Coalition? Because they’ve passed a resolution to stop subsidies for renewables.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m familiar with that resolution, actually, very familiar with it, and it actually confirmed the point I just made that we have to respect the existing arrangements and what that motion speaks to is what we do after that.
BEN DAVIS:
Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER:
That is what we are working through, and I can just assure you and your listeners that my focus is on ensuring we get the policy right so that we deliver affordable, reliable electricity to all Australians. So keep the lights on - and we can afford to pay to keep them on – and of course, we meet our emission reduction targets in accordance with our international obligations.
BEN DAVIS:
See, here in Queensland we’re shouldering the load, we’re supplying enough power for those below the border interstate who don’t have the generation capacity in play. So we feel like we’re propping up the rest of the country here.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well in north Queensland, they’d like to see more generation too. I mean I’ve been talking to Tim Nicholls who I hope will be the next Premier of Queensland about the potential for a new advanced high-efficiency low emission coal fired power station in North Queensland.
BEN DAVIS:
Will you back it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well certainly if Tim becomes Premier and he if the state decides to build one, there’s obviously a substantial amount of funds in our Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund that’s available for infrastructure. And a power station certainly ticks that box, it is definitely infrastructure.
BEN DAVIS:
Okay so possibly coal fired power in North Queensland?
PRIME MINISTER:
But it will depend, it would completely depend on a LNP state government, because Annastacia Palaszczuk for reasons, she can perhaps explain is absolutely opposed to any further investment in coal fired energy in Queensland, despite the fact that Queensland has of course enormous coal resources and is exporting it to the world.
BEN DAVIS:
How is that relationship Prime Minister, with our Premier?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it’s perfectly, you know, cordial, friendly, but we obviously disagree on a lot of policy issues. I mean I’m committed to ensuring that we have reliable and affordable energy, renewables are a big part of that mix.
I mean we are making an investment and this will benefit Queensland through the national electricity market, we are making a big investment to ensure that we complete the Snowy Hydro scheme. Snowy Hydro 2.0 will be the biggest expansion of renewable hydro energy, pumped hydro, in the country’s history since, of course, the first scheme built all those years ago.
So the important thing is that your energy policy has to be guided by engineering and economics - not by ideology and idiocy - which is what we’ve seen from the Labor Party. And you know, you can’t have these heroic renewable targets unless you can say how you’re going to back up your electricity network when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing and that’s the mistake that’s been made of course. Which is what we are now you know working through to correct, I mean look at the shambles that we’ve seen in the gas market.
You know you had a, you know onshore gas, unconventional gas in Queensland, a lot of exploration and development exports allowed under state Labor Government, Federal Labor Government from Gladstone. But despite warnings from the energy department, from the industry, from the energy market operator, that this would result in tight supplies and higher prices, Labor ignored it and what have we got? Tight supplies and higher prices, so I’ve had to step in and restrict exports.
BEN DAVIS:
But Prime Minister I mean, but it’s that gas that’s keeping the power on and the lights on for the rest of the country.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is, you are dead right, and the fact is the only reason that its becoming somewhat more affordable again is because of the very strong action my government has taken. Had it not been for the action we’ve taken gas would – you know gas was, to give you an idea about the situation, gas was up around $10-$12 say $12 a gigajoule in July last year, it’s now back around the $8 mark.
Now that is because, this is the wholesale price of course you’re talking about, that is because of the strong action that I’ve taken. It gives me no joy to be foreshadowing restricting exports but that’s what you’ve got to do. We’ve been cleaning up Labor messes.
BEN DAVIS:
Can we get those South of the Tweed to start get some gas production and that might help relieve some of the burden for us up here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’ll put in – I can tell you that Josh Frydenberg and I are constantly urging state governments - the Victorians I must say are the least cooperative - but we’re urging them to exploit their onshore gas reserves. Just as we’re encouraging the Northern Territory to develop its big onshore, its big gas reserves on you know onshore gas reserves.
BEN DAVIS:
Prime Minister before we do run out of time with the news beating us, I want to ask you – well actually I don’t but I need to ask you - about same-sex marriage and the postal survey. I wish we weren’t talking about this but it’s something that’s in play now, are you happy so far with the tone of the debate?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, look I think it’s overwhelmingly respectful and positive, and as you know, my view is that if you want people to respect your point of view you’ve got to respect theirs. Lucy and I are voting ‘yes’, we encourage others to do so, but we absolutely respect those who take a different view and are taking it, you know voting ‘no’.
BEN DAVIS:
Alright if-
PRIME MINISTER:
Look there have been some, there are cases of people saying disrespectful things, but and I do think - you know we’ve got to be frank - I mean the media does tend to amplify them to some degree, somewhat out of proportion. Overwhelmingly Australians are sensible, respectful people. This is a very important social issue and we’re giving everyone a say. And you know what? We promised to do so at the election, we promised to do so and we’re delivering.
BEN DAVIS:
Alright, on that if the vote is no, Peter Dutton has said that the Liberal Party needs to the issue behind them, so if the no vote wins, is that the end of the matter for your government?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh absolutely, it’s very straightforward. If there is a ‘yes’ vote, then we will facilitate a private members bill to legalise same-sex marriage. If there’s a ‘no’ vote, we won’t, that’s it. Very straightforward.
BEN DAVIS:
So it won’t become an election issue next time we go to the polls?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we won’t if the people have spoken against it, we won’t be proposing it at the election I can assure you.
BEN DAVIS:
Should we see the legislation before we’ve voted, or listed our survey?
PRIME MINISTER:
The Parliament has got to finalise the legislation but there has been an exposure draft of the bill published by the Attorney-General last year, you know when we were seeking to get the plebiscite through the Senate, and of course Shorten stopped that. And that has been to a Senate Committee so there has been a lot of work on it, and there is plenty of detail there on it.
But it’s a Private Members Bill Ben, so what that means is you will see the Parliament – assuming there is a ‘yes’ vote in the survey, you’ll see the Parliament at its best, the Bill will be along the lines of that exposure draft or the one that Senator Dean Smith has proposed which is similar. But there will be amendments and debate and discussion and I think you’ll see the Parliament at its best and we will get a good outcome.
BEN DAVIS:
Don’t you think it would’ve been a good idea to I guess explain how religious freedoms would’ve been protected before the survey finishes up, I mean is there still time to do that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they are – the protection of religious freedoms is set out in those, in that exposure draft. So they’re all set out there. Now people will have different views about-
BEN DAVIS:
We can see this?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah sure, it’s a public document, there was a whole Senate Inquiry into it-
BEN DAVIS:
And it’s not-
PRIME MINISTER:
-everyone made submissions, yeah.
BEN DAVIS:
And the only way that will change is how the debate and to get it through Parliament.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah that’s right, but you see that’s right. But it’s a matter for Parliament then to legislate and you will get amendments and you will get debate and obviously we don’t have a majority in the Senate. But I’m confident, very confident that the Bill, same-sex marriage will be legalised and you will then see the focus of the Parliament being on the detail and it will all turnaround over questions of religious freedom.
BEN DAVIS:
Prime Minister, sadly, time has beaten us, but thank you for yours this afternoon. Enjoy the next three days here in South East Queensland, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
[Ends]