Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (15:39): I am pleased to contribute to this debate, and I welcome the crossbenchers putting this forward. I have just one thing to start with. We hear that government needs a plan to fix the crisis we are in, but the very reason we are in a crisis is because of government interference in the very first place. Let's just go through how we got into this mess. If we go back to those glory years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd regime and if we look to the ABS figures— Mr Champion: You're going back a long way! Mr CRAIG KELLY: Do not worry, member for Wakefield, I will get to South Australia very soon. Do not worry about that. According to the ABS figures, under those glory years we had a 118 per cent increase in the price of electricity in this nation. In a little over five years, the Labor Party with their policies managed to see electricity prices increase by 118 per cent. Mr Champion: What's it up under you? Mr CRAIG KELLY: It takes some special incompetence to get that increase. The member for Wakefield asked, 'How much have electricity prices increased under the coalition government?' I am very happy to inform the member for Wakefield—and I will refer him to the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, if he would care to look at them—that, from the time this coalition government was elected to the last release, the increase is three per cent. Mr Champion: Really? Mr CRAIG KELLY: Yes, member for Wakefield, that is correct. Under the coalition, electricity prices have increased three per cent. Under the previous government that the member for Wakefield was a member of—the brilliant work of the member for Wakefield—it was an increase of 118 per cent. He carps there from the dispatch box. We also have to actually look at and talk about the mess we are in. Nowhere is the mess worse than in the member for Wakefield's own home state of South Australia. If you want to look at how not to do it, look at the member for Wakefield's state. The policies they have there have not only caused blackouts but also given South Australia not only the highest electricity prices in the nation but also some of the highest electricity prices in the world. That is as of today, and we know that as of 1 July electricity prices in Adelaide are going to go up by a further 18 per cent. Why are they going up? At least, thankfully, they have done something down there in Adelaide. They have spent another $500 million of South Australia's taxpayers' money, thankfully, to put in a bank of diesel generators so hopefully the lights will not go out again this summertime. We have to admit that there are big price increases coming through in electricity. But why is this happening? It is happening because of the 20 per cent renewable energy target set by Kevin Rudd. Why was there a 20 per cent renewable energy target? Was it because of a good analysis of the economics? Was it because of a good analysis of the engineering? No. It was simply because it rhymed. We had an energy policy put forward by the previous Labor government for no other reason—it was 20 per cent by 2020—than it rhymed. And we wonder why we are in this absolute, complete mess. Even Dr Finkel, in his report, actually notes that the renewable energy target has caused this mess. I will quote from his report. He says: Security and reliability have been compromised by poorly integrated variable renewable electricity generators, including wind and solar. That is a direct quote from the Finkel report. Mr Champion interjecting— Mr CRAIG KELLY: Would you like to say that you disagree with the Finkel report? Dear oh dear, we hear the member for Wakefield already dismissing the Finkel report. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Coulton ): The member for Hughes will address his remarks through the chair, and the member for Wakefield will be silent. Mr CRAIG KELLY: It is also worth noting that the problem that we have in this nation at the moment is we simply do not have enough quantity of dispatchable electricity. The Finkel report notes that this coming summer there is a large risk of blackouts in South Australia and Victoria simply because there is a shortage of dispatchable electricity. That is the first issue that we need to address because it may be something the Labor Party do not understand—that when the wind does not blow the power does not flow. We have seen a situation in this country where last month the thousand wind turbines spread from South Australia to Tasmania, to Victoria, to New South Wales and up to Queensland were delivering zero electricity—not enough to run one 25-watt— (Time expired)