Mr TAYLOR (Hume—Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) (15:26): What a tawdry performance from the member for McMahon. What else would you expect from the member from McMahon? It was absolutely tawdry. He is the shadow minister who wanted to tax Australians out of existence. Now he wants to impose a carbon tax. We all know it. He only got the job because his predecessor was sacked. His predecessor, the member for Hindmarsh, was sacked. One of the member for Hindmarsh's own colleagues—he might be over there actually, who knows?—called him, 'as useless as a vegan in a butcher shop'. That's a quote. Here are some more glowing reviews of the policies we're seeing from those opposite. We hear Tony Maher describing those policies as, 'a gratuitous insult to the workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on them'. That's been reflected in comments from the AWU. They took a very similar dim view to Labor's policies on energy. We had a former Victorian Labor minister who named the member for Hindmarsh as one of the two people who lost Labor the last election—I think the other one is just over there—thanks to their economy-wrecking targets. The member for Hunter had it right on this issue, when he was talking about energy policy from those opposite, 'It hasn't turned out very well for us'. Well, it hasn't, because the member for McMahon's got the job now, not so ably supported by the member for Shortland, who helped put together Labor's carbon tax with Greg Combet. We all know about that. A sneaky carbon tax now though. He's moved away from an explicit one. Now he wants it to be a sneaky one. I remember sitting, waiting to go on to be interviewed on ABC regional radio several years ago and there was a member for Shortland, who was asked about whether their policy was a carbon tax. He said, 'an implicit carbon tax'. That's what those opposite want to do. When I look to whether a policy is working I look at the outcomes. What we're seeing is a record eight consecutive quarters of year-on-year CPI reductions—a 9.2 per cent reduction in the last 12 months alone. I did a comparison with what we saw under Labor and the time they were in government: 23 consecutive quarters of CPI electricity price increases. The best quarter, the lowest increase, was 6.8 per cent in March 2009. The worst was in June 2012—they were building momentum like a snowball—an 18.5 per cent increase in one quarter. The average over their time was a 12 per cent increase. That's not over the whole time they were in government; that's each quarter. That is the comparison. We've seen a 50 per cent wholesale price reduction since 2018, in the time since I've been the minister. We've seen the lowest December quarter wholesale prices since 2014. Unlike those opposite we are lowering prices, while they raised them. Of course, central to that is more gas into our system, unlocking supply, efficient transportation and empowering customers. We've seen a 40 per cent reduction in the gas price; it is 40 per cent lower than it was in 2019. This is delivering results. I'll come back to that in a moment. Before I do, we are achieving that at the same time as we are reducing emissions. We beat our Kyoto era targets by 459 million tonnes—almost a year's worth of emissions. Over the last two years alone we've improved our performance on emissions by 630 million tonnes; that's the equivalent of taking every car in this country off the road for 15 years, but we don't have to do that. Those opposite would do that; that's the kind of policy they would champion. But we don't need to do that. We, indeed, will strengthen and do strengthen our economy as we bring down emissions. Between 2005 and 2018 our emissions fell faster than Canada's and New Zealand's; theirs were flat. Ours are now down 19 per cent. Indeed, in the domestic economy there is a 36 per cent reduction. We have faster reductions than Japan and the United States. Mr Conroy interjecting— Mr TAYLOR: I'll take that interjection. Those opposite hate our exports. The member for Shortland lives in a region that is a coal exporter, and he hates the coal industry. Mr Conroy interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Llew O'Brien ): The minister will pause. The member for Shortland is warned. Any other members who don't want to be in the chamber for any subsequent divisions post this MPI are warned they won't be. Mr TAYLOR: The member for McMahon, who is pretending that he likes the coal industry, went up to Queensland, visited a metallurgical coalmine and refused to do any media so that he could come back to the coffee shops of Sydney and Melbourne and explain to people that he in fact doesn't support the coal industry after all—just like his colleague the member for Shortland, who never supported the coal industry and is quite happy to see his constituents losing their jobs. The member for McMahon mentioned the ANAO report. I make the very simple point that the ANAO report recognises that the department made a clear recommendation that the funding be approved. He can say whatever he likes but that was a clear recommendation, and it is focused on making sure we have the secure, reliable, affordable supply that Australians need. Ultimately this is about protecting jobs and creating opportunities for Australia—not destroying jobs, like those opposite would have us do. The strength of our commitment to jobs and opportunities for all Australians was demonstrated just last week, on Friday, when the Prime Minister announced a package alongside the energy generators for the Portland aluminium smelter that will secure 500 jobs. Those are direct jobs for the Portland aluminium smelter. Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr TAYLOR: I'll take the interjection from the member opposite—150 jobs, from a single contractor who I met this morning who will benefit. Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr TAYLOR: That's right—150 jobs that will be protected, because they provide contractors to the Portland aluminium smelter. The member for McMahon wouldn't know that, because, as the member for Hunter has said, he's got his training wheels on. We'll provide up to $77 million as part of that package over four years to secure Portland's participation in reducing energy demand at peak times. This is a unique role that aluminium smelters can play, but those opposite wouldn't understand. Certainly, the member for McMahon, with his training wheels on, wouldn't have a clue. What you can do with an aluminium smelter is make sure you keep the lights on and keep prices down at those peak demand times, and that's what we're recognising in this package. But it's alongside very aggressive, low wholesale electricity prices that were offered by the electricity generators as part of this package, and that is only possible because of the policies of this government to make sure we have affordable reliable energy in this country, in stark contrast to what we saw from those opposite when they were last in power. We saw shining examples of mismanagement from those opposite when they were last in office. Indeed, based on the work of the member for Shortland, of course, and with the strong encouragement of the member for McMahon who wrote about this in glowing terms in his book, Labor in partnership with the Greens imposed a carbon tax that destroyed the Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter, ending the careers of more than 300 people. It shut and announced its closure in the time when those opposite had imposed a carbon tax. This is the same carbon tax that the member for McMahon has gone out of his way to defend. He has never seen a tax he didn't like, whether it's a housing tax or a retiree tax, and now he's been put in this job to put in place a carbon tax, because what he loves more than anything else is taxing Australians.