PETA CREDLIN: Thanks for coming on the show, Minister. I'm going to get in to the Energy portfolio in a moment, but we've got some breaking news through this afternoon. There was a trading halt in NAB shares. Now we know that the CEO and the Chairman have resigned. Damning criticism in Justice Hayne's report. Some in the community don't think it went far enough. How do you feel about where this report has landed and the Government's response, and any reaction to these resignations?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Obviously the resignations are a matter for the NAB board, but look, the broader point I'd make, Peta, is that we need to see the banks, as with other companies - the energy companies are in the same situation in my view - needing to focus on their customers, needing to focus on their customers. They haven't been doing that as much as they should. We firmly believe in free enterprise on our side of politics, but it is free enterprise where there is competition and customer-focus. That was the real point of the Royal Commission, that was the point that was made. There's lots of things in that Royal Commission report that we are doing, obviously, and we should, but most of all, there needs to be culture change. You know, I've worked and consulted to these big companies - culture change is hard, it is cathartic, but in this sector, as in the energy sector - and I'm the Minister for Energy, obviously - there has to be culture change. That's what we should all be looking for and that's what we should all be judging the success of the Royal Commission on.

PETA CREDLIN: Okay, you're a member of Cabinet - there were some extraordinary revelations today about classified briefings from ASIO to the Government warning that if Labor's legislation - the legislation they support, initiated by Kerryn Phelps - was to pass the Parliament, and it is due to be debated next week, we know Labor has supported it in the Senate, it will be for you to vote on when Parliament resumes on Tuesday - ASIO are saying that there are national security implications if doctors are finishing off the business of people smugglers and enabling people to get to Australia from Manus and Nauru. I think this is quite extraordinary developments today. What do you make of it?

ANGUS TAYLOR: They've said it would weaken our border security regime, and at face value you've got to believe it will, Peta. If you've got two doctors on the other end of a Skype camera deciding whether or not someone should be coming to Australia, and knowing that once they're here they're unlikely to ever leave again, you've lost control of your borders.  The broader point here is that Labor is backing this in, and the reason is that Bill Shorten can't control the left of his party. That is why he can't control the borders, they simply can't control the borders. They can't control taxes, they can't control spending, but they can't control the borders. That's what Australians need to understand as we go up to the election: it's just not in their DNA. They don't have the ability, and we're seeing all the signs of their weakness right now. We're going to see it in Parliament in the next couple of weeks, no doubt. It is a big test for Labor - are they going to try to change the way they think about this? I think they've got no hope. I think the reality is this is a party that can't control the borders.

PETA CREDLIN: Yes, we'll watch it closely. We understand Bill Shorten has had a briefing today. We'll see whether he backs down, but it will be something that we focus on heavily next week. We look forward to the election in May and it's clear it's shaping up - or anticipated election in May. You might know the date that I don't, but it's shaping up to be an election contest where borders are now back on the table again for the community to judge both sides of politics. But energy - now, Malcolm Turnbull tried to get through a National Energy Guarantee. In the end, he junked it to try and save his own job a few months ago. You are now the Minister as a result of the leadership change. You're the Minister for Energy, but as Scott Morrison says, you're the Minister for getting prices down. How are you going?

ANGUS TAYLOR: The single most important thing we can do to get prices down over the medium-term is get more supply in, and that's a real focus for us. In the short term, 1 January we saw significant reductions in standing offers - that's for customers who haven't got time to get on the phone and negotiate a better price - particularly small business customers, almost a quarter of small business customers are on standing offers. That is a very, very important reform and we'll see more in that direction in the coming months, Peta. But in the medium-term, the key is supply. Now, we have a lot of supply coming into the market. It's not as balanced as we would like it to be - too much of it is variable - and so we've said we're going to underwrite new generation into the market.

PETA CREDLIN: Variable meaning too much of it is not fossil fuels.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yes, so, it is there when the sun shines and when the wind blows, exactly right. So we need to have a balance of dispatchable power. Now, that has to be either coal, gas, or hydro.

PETA CREDLIN: So, how do you get that in?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we've said we'll underwrite it in. We've said we will step up to the plate. The big energy companies haven't been doing the right thing - the industry is not competitive enough and not customer focused enough, frankly. So, we're stepping in and we've said we'll underwrite new supply into the market. Now, on top of that we've brought forward legislation to the Parliament which says if you withdraw - you, big energy company - withdraw supply from the market to push up prices, then we'll take action against you.

PETA CREDLIN: Is that coded language in relation to Liddell, which is set to shut down in 2022?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Liddell is set to shut in 2022. Now, if Liddell's going to shut, that's got to be replaced, and it has got to be replaced with dispatchable power - power that's there when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. It must be. Just as we saw with Hazelwood - when that supply was withdrawn, we saw a huge hike in the prices. The ACCC laid this out. They called the conduct that was happening in the industry unacceptable and unsustainable. So, we've stepped up, we've stepped in, and we're backing new supply into the market - 66 proposals - we're working our way through those now.

PETA CREDLIN: That's what I want to get in to. So, consumers have heard this for a long time, particularly from the Coalition - the Coalition has made it clear it has got a much stronger commitment to fossil fuels than the Labor Party. What you have on the table as an offering at the next election, you say, is better for reliability, better for price - where is the detail of your commitment on this new dispatchable power outcome?

ANGUS TAYLOR: The detail is that we will underwrite new power into the market - we put forward a process which we've worked through extremely quickly-

PETA CREDLIN: Will you name companies? Will you name areas, will you name power quantities?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Of course we will, look, I've said we will get it down to a shortlist as quickly as we can. Because we've got 66, which is a lot more than we expected, for a huge amount of capacity - almost half, in fact more than half of the total capacity in Australia right now has come forward in new proposals. So, this is phenomenal.

PETA CREDLIN: Well, this is great news.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Exactly. This is, you know, the big energy companies say people don't want to invest in energy. They don't want people to invest in energy because the price will go down, right. We have stepped up and we've said bring forward good proposals - 66, we're working through them. There's a whole range. There's 10 coal, big number of gas, hydro - which needs to play an important role in all of this - but it's got to be dispatchable. That means, in practical terms, it is 24/7, it is there when you want it, it is there when you turn the lights on. Unlike in Victoria where 200,000 houses lost their power because Dan Andrews, Victorian Labor Government, trashed their electricity grid, Peta.

PETA CREDLIN: You're absolutely right. I mean, just the other day we obviously had the ABS numbers come out and revealed that coal is our number one export - $66 billion. It is one of the reasons you'll get back into surplus, as you predict you'll do, on 2 April. Now, if coal can be sent overseas and burnt for the benefit of all these other countries, it just doesn't stack up in the court of common sense that it can't be used here. You've said, what, ten coal?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Ten of the 66.

PETA CREDLIN: Okay. So, do you have a bias against coal? Are you happy to have coal in the mix? Do you want to see gas in the mix?

ANGUS TAYLOR: You know what I have a bias for? I have a bias for lower prices and reliability. I have a bias for keeping Boyne and Tomago, the big smelters, all the manufacturing in this country, open. Open for business.

PETA CREDLIN: When you say Labor's policy is bad policy and your policy in terms of emissions is half of where Labor's is, tell me what the scale up difference is between your 26/28 and Labor's 45/50? What is the impact for jobs, what is the impact for Australian industry? How bad will it be if we end up with Labor's energy policy after the next election?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, it'll be disastrous. First of all, it'll be taking what Dan Andrews is doing in Victoria and we saw happening under the South Australian Labor Government, it'll be taking that experiment, which has been a disaster, national. So, that's the first thing - because their target is the same as those state targets were and it will undermine the national grid very, very quickly. The second thing is we have seen from work done by the Climate Change Authority, of all people, that this slashes the economy, it slashes jobs, and worst of all, Peta, it slashes wages. What happens is in order to get to their emissions target, you have to shut industries, and that means the jobs that were there aren't available. Peta, everyone loses. Everyone loses. Climate Change Authority had the average weekly earnings a few years out from now dropping by $6,000. So, this is what Labor is proposing. Just as Bill Shorten can't control the left of his party on the borders, he can't control the left of his party on crazy emissions policies. That is what we face as we go up to the next election. This is the choice that the Australian people will have. We want more dispatchable baseload supply that keeps the lights on, it keeps prices down in the market, that counter-balances those dreadful targets, the reckless targets that have been set by state governments. Labor, on the other hand, want an emissions reduction target halving our emissions, more or less, and they will have to slash industry, slash jobs, and slash wages to do it.

PETA CREDLIN: Just want to quickly, before we go to this issue today, AGL announced $25 million to be spent on a coal fired power station in Victoria for some upgrades - do we think we're starting to see some common sense come back into these big companies?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, I welcome that announcement, if it happens. The truth is that the big companies have been on investment strike and are threatening an investment strike in the future, which is why we're stepping up. Look, there are two problems in the electricity grid right now. One is there hasn't been enough thought about how to keep it balanced - we've been pushing out Hazelwoods and others without regard for keeping the lights on and keeping prices down. The second problem is there hasn't been enough competition, and these big energy companies making record profits, record profits.

PETA CREDLIN: Is privatisation part of the problem here?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, no because the worst of them is in Queensland and it's government-owned, Peta. The worst of them. They took $1.65 billion out of the electricity market last year to fix their budget problems. Didn't fix them.

PETA CREDLIN: Notwithstanding their record increases in revenues from coal and other minerals that they're demonising, yes, you're absolutely right - it turned red ink to black ink.

ANGUS TAYLOR: It is not about privatisation, it is about competition. It is actually about energy companies that are competing for customers and have a culture - going right back to the point about the banks - that have a culture that is customer focused. It is about bringing prices down, about providing a fair deal. When a company makes a record profit without innovation, without new products, without doing anything special and new for customers, there's a problem.

PETA CREDLIN: Do you think - just as we're going to go now - I'm sorry to leave it here because I could talk about this all night, it is a big issue for people out there in the community - do you think between now and the election, Minister Angus Taylor, we're going to see some movement on gas or coal, these tenders that you've got in - are we going to see announcements?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yes, of course. We are moving through those projects as quickly as we can - 66, we'll bring them down to a shortlist. We need to have balance, we need to have a mix in there, and we'll be working through those projects and getting them to come to fruition as quickly as we can. They don't happen overnight, so at the same time, we've got to hold the supply in that we've got, and that's why we've brought legislation to the Parliament to help us to do that. It is crucial. We are stepping up. We don't like to have to intervene, we don't do it unless we have to, but in this case, we have to.

PETA CREDLIN: Minister, thanks very much for your time.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks, Peta.