Recent volatility in global energy prices and the impacts on financial markets, industries and consumers are a reality check for politicians and investors. 

As Europe’s bitter experience shows, neglecting energy security and affordability is a recipe for economic devastation, leaving no margin for response when the unlikely or unexpected occurs. 

So far, Australia has largely weathered the storm, with east coast gas prices around 77 per cent lower than in Europe. This has helped avoid the up to 279 per cent spike in electricity prices observed in European countries over the past 12 months.  

And while prices at the petrol bowser have increased, oil prices have eased from their highs and Australia is working with other International Energy Agency members to release reserves and increase supply. 

That’s why getting the balance right between short-term realities and longer-term goals is essential. 

Because a failure to get that balance right leaves nations and economies vulnerable to shocks. 

The emissions reduction policy framework the Morrison Government has developed over the last three years sets a clear long term vision, backed by a plan to achieve it, that won’t compromise energy affordability or reliability. 

Our plan sets out a defined role for government, to enable Australia to get to net zero emissions by 2050. 

Australia’s Technology Investment Roadmap identifies six priority areas for investment – hydrogen, energy storage, low emissions steel and aluminium, carbon capture technologies, ultra low cost solar and soil carbon measurement. 

Australia has a comparative advantage in each of these areas, which cover sectors accounting for more than 70 per cent of global emissions.  

If we can get these technologies to parity with existing approaches, we’ll get most of the way to net zero not just here in Australia, but globally. 

That’s why our focus is on partnering with the private sector to reduce the cost of these technologies through research and development, innovative demonstration projects and concessional financing to support the scale up of near-commercial technologies. 

The Roadmap explicitly recognises that widespread deployment of mature technologies must be driven by the private sector – not the politicians and bureaucrats in Canberra. 

By reducing the cost of low emissions technologies, households and businesses will adopt them because they meet their needs and make economic sense for them to do so. 

The alternative is carbon taxes or mandates – which are really a carbon tax by another name. Policies like these add new costs to the economy, will slow our economic recovery and add fuel to inflationary pressures. 

Labor’s plan to force Australia’s 215 largest energy-users and producers to cut their aggregate emissions by 25 per cent by 2030 is an example of a poorly thought out policy that will make Australia industry less competitive and push jobs offshore. 

Labor has promised to give some of these facilities special treatment – an implicit recognition that, just like an explicit carbon tax, their plan will impact competitiveness.  

But for every business that receives special treatment, another has to do that much more of the heavy lifting.  

Make no mistake, the sneaky carbon tax Labor wants to impose from 2023 – next year – will make Australian industries less competitive and it will increase the cost of living.  

At a time when we are working to increase the security of our supply chains in response to the pandemic, Labor’s carbon tax will push Australia in the opposite direction.  

It will hit metropolitan gas networks, waste and recycling, fuel refineries, airlines, trucking companies, flour mills as well as mining, steel and aluminium production. 

Policies like these reduce the margin for error when nations and economies face the unexpected.  

They make energy-intensive industries that Australians rely on less competitive and their products and services more expensive. 

Ultimately, they risk the nation losing control of its energy security and affordability. 

Our ‘technology not taxes’ approach is designed to impose no new costs for households or businesses.   

It’s designed to expand choices, not mandates. 

We have a strong track record of meeting our international commitments, and we are delivering on the commitment we made to every Australian at the last election to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.  

Our emissions are already down 20 per cent on 2005 levels (the baseline year for our2030 target), and the latest official forecasts show we’re on track to smash that target by up to 9 percentage points, achieving up to a 35 per cent reduction by 2030. 

Our plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 gets the balance right and will continue that track record of delivery.