DAVID BEVAN: Angus Taylor, Federal Minister for Energy, welcome to ABC Radio Adelaide.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks for having me.

DAVID BEVAN: These changes to allow people to read their own electricity and gas meters, is this part of the Prime Minister's fair dinkum energy policy?

ANGUS TAYLOR: It sure is. This is absolutely crucial. In fact disputes over inaccurate readings are one of the most frequent sources of customer complaints, and the way it works, of course, is that often the house for one reason or another is inaccessible to the meter reader, and so the energy company then estimates what usage has been. They will often get it wrong and people will be billed far more than they have used, they get the bill shock and then they have to try to deal with this. Now, the way we're alleviating this is saying you can ring up or go to an appropriate website, tell them what your meter reading is - you may have to provide appropriate proof, it could be a photo on your phone that you send through - and then that meter reading will be used for billing. So, the billing will be immediately adjusted to reflect that. The retailer importantly has an obligation to use that meter reading that is done by the owner of the house.

DAVID BEVAN: And if the owner of the house or it might be the tenant, if they're trying to pull a swifty, there are penalties on that?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, the retailer can ask for proof, and of course, if someone lies, it is fraud and fraud is treated as it should be. But look, we're a country where I think the vast majority of people do the right thing the vast majority of the time. This system is set up for that. The good news in the modern world is it is very easy to give proof of these things. A lot of us - most of us these days - have smartphones and just take a photo but this is also set up so that someone who doesn't have a smartphone can read straight off the meter, and it's pretty obvious when they're doing that. The retailers importantly though, have an obligation to use that meter reading if it's given to them by the tenant or owner of the house or business, as the case may be.

DAVID BEVAN: So, when do the new changes kick in?

ANGUS TAYLOR: From 1 February. As I say, this is very important because it happens far more often than you might think. It could be as simple as having a dog in the house and the meter reader doesn't want to go in. It could be that you're not around and so you can't unlock the front gate. There is all sorts of reasons why the meter can't be read and so this is a very, very common complaint. What this is doing, of course, is giving more power to the customer and that's what we're all about with these reforms we're putting through right now.

DAVID BEVAN: Does that mean we won't have anybody coming out and reading meters anymore or will companies still want somebody to actually inspect the meter maybe when the house is sold or when there's a new tenant?

ANGUS TAYLOR: No companies will still have meter readers. This is really dealing with a case where they can't get into the house for one reason or another. We are progressively moving to smart meters, which typically have automatic download to the company of usage but that's taking time. If you've got a smart meter, this is of course not an issue, but what's crucial here is that when the meter reader can't get in then you can make sure you get the right bill, not the wrong bill.

DAVID BEVAN: Alright. Now, later on this morning we're going to be talking to South Australian Independent Senator Tim Storer. Now, he is very critical of this raft of measures that the Prime Minister announced yesterday for this fair dinkum power. I hope, by the way, you've introduced Anne Ruston to what fair dinkum power is because we talked to her yesterday and she didn't know what we were talking about. Anyway, moving on, Tim Storer says that he is opposed to the proposal to give the Treasurer the power to order divestment of assets. So now, what he's referring to there, isn't it, is let's give a concrete example, AGL, they don't want to sell one of their old coal-fired power stations, Federal Government says there's still life in the old girl yet, no we're going to force you to sell it, you can't just close it down. Now, are you seriously going to pass a law to allow that to happen?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, it depends on the circumstances - this is a last resort - but let me give you the circumstance which is a rip off to Australian energy users, hardworking families and small businesses. If an energy company has a big generating facility that produces a lot of electricity in a market and suddenly decides to shut it with no replacement - with no replacement - and the prices are hiked as a result, that's simply not on. They are dodgy practises and unfortunately that is exactly what happened when Hazelwood was shut. Now, we're not saying that shutting Hazelwood or any of these generators should never happen, we're saying it's got to be replaced with firm reliable power that ensures that Australian households get the prices and the reliability they deserve. Companies need to take responsibility to do that. If they're not going to, we will intervene. Now, it's a last resort, there's other mechanisms we're putting in place which mean that we hopefully will never have to go to that last resort but -

DAVID BEVAN: But Minister, Tim Storer says, look, this is ironic because this is coming from what is meant to be the party of the free market, and what you're saying - I mean, this is something you'd expect in North Korea! They're going to go in there and we're going to take this asset off you and force you to sell it.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Now, hang on, let me pull you up - when you make a comparison with North Korea, I will push back very hard because these powers exist in the UK and the US, and have been used, they are a last resort. What's crucial here is this is an essential market; it's an essential utility for every Australian. Every Australian household and business buys electricity, and if a company is ripping capacity out of the market to hike prices, without appropriate replacement, then of course the government must act. Australians expect us to do that - they expect us to sit on the side of the customer, not on the side of the big energy companies, and that is exactly what we'll do.

DAVID BEVAN: He's also - he says - alarmed that there's no focus in your policy to reduce carbon emissions. Do you say we've done enough?

ANGUS TAYLOR: No. I am saying that we have a 250 per cent increase in solar and wind coming into our electricity market in the next three years. That means that we will meet our international obligations well ahead of time, and that means we can now spend some time focusing on the issue which is hurting so many hardworking Australians which is high prices and the risk of unreliability, which we are increasingly seeing particularly in the southern states. So, we have some breathing space here because we've done very well on renewables and emissions reduction. The focus now has to be to get prices to that level which is fair for all Australians.

DAVID BEVAN: Minister, thank you for your time this morning.

ANGUS TAYLOR: It's a pleasure.