I listened very closely to Senator Stewart’s contribution to this debate and noted that nowhere in her contribution did she actually address the situation of the Tomago Aluminium smelter. You can get up in this place and provide platitudes, provide some talking points and say a whole raft of things, but what I say is to look at the outcomes. Look at the outcomes of the government’s policies. My friend in this place Senator Canavan asked about what is happening at that Tomago Aluminium smelter, one of our most important industrial assets in this country, employing 1,000 Australian workers. When you hear those opposite say power prices are coming down, renewables are the 100 per cent answer, you don’t have to look at other baseload energy solutions et cetera—when you hear all that, answer for me why it is that the chief executive officer of Tomago Aluminium, Mr Jerome Dozol, said:
Unfortunately, all market proposals received so far show future energy prices are not commercially viable …
Those are his words. That’s the chief executive officer who, during the course of today, had to front the workers and actually tell them that that smelter may well have to close by 2028. If having 100 per cent renewables is the answer and if the Labor government’s energy policies are the solution, why did the chief executive officer of one of our largest industrial assets have to front his own workers earlier today and tell them that they could well lose their jobs. Why? Again:
Unfortunately, all market proposals received so far show future energy prices are not commercially viable …
If renewable energy is cheaper and if renewable energy is going provide 100 per cent of the answers, why is the aluminium smelter looking as if it’s going to close? Why? There is no answer from those opposite.
At the same time, we see the Labor government not wanting to release information with respect to the impact of the Labor government’s energy policies, for the benefit of the Australian people—for your benefit. I believe in transparency. I believe the Australian people have a right to as much information as they could possibly want in relation to the formulation of government policy.
That includes information held by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water with respect to the impact on electricity prices of the Labor government’s policies. And yet, when my colleague Senator Dean Smith sought information from the department, he was given a document—it’s called an incoming government brief—with 63 out of the 65 pages redacted. They were covered in black ink so you couldn’t see what was there. In one case there were 24 pages in a row that were all blacked out. Every single one of them was completely blacked out. That means we’re not allowed to see it. It means the Australian people aren’t allowed to see it, and that’s unacceptable. You have a right to that information.
What did we find from the information we could actually discern amongst all the redactions? This is what we found. The advice which flags energy prices as a top concern for households after food and groceries notes:
Still, the draft Default Market Offer points to a further significant increase in retail electricity prices next financial year.
It also states that emissions reductions need to accelerate rapidly to meet the government’s target of a 43 per cent cut from 2005 levels to 2030. With this warning falling within the narrow scope of information that the minister released, we’re left to ask ourselves the question: what else was redacted? What else is the government refusing to release that is lying there under that sea of black ink?
