LEON BYNER: We caught up with, a few minutes ago, the Energy Minister Angus Taylor because there's release that's come from the ACCC which suggests that nearly 800,000 residential and small business customers have seen their power bills fall. We caught up with, a few minutes ago, with Angus Taylor.

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LEON BYNER: Angus Taylor Energy Minister, thank you for joining us. The ACCC has done an analysis of market prices and they've found that people should be paying less.

ANGUS TAYLOR: They've found a number of things Leon. First of all, there are significant savings that are being delivered from 1 July through changes to the standing offers. So caps that were put in place - price caps - and they've applied in South Australia, and this applies to customers who haven't negotiated a market offer, they haven't got on the phone and asked for a better deal. So significant savings up for grabs there that have already been delivered from 1 July for both small businesses and households - bigger numbers for small businesses than households. Secondly, we've seen a very significant reduction in the sneaky late payment penalties which had become prevalent in the industry. There's still more than we would like but there's need a very, very significant reduction and we're going to keep working on that one. Then thirdly we are seeing more competition in the marketplace, particular form the second tier retailers and the simple message here is there are real savings up for grabs in asking for a better deal from the second tier retailers - $300 on a typical bill in South Australia up for grabs - and those retailers are being aggressive in the marketplace. That competition is good but it's important that consumers, the customers, take the opportunity to get those savings.

LEON BYNER: So are we saying then that the average person listening today should be looking at their bill and noticing that there's been a decrease?

ANGUS TAYLOR: It depends on the plan you're on, it depends on which supplier you've got, but what I can say is if you're on standing offers, you will see a decrease. There is no doubt about that. And that you can get further decreases by making a call, by making that call which can make a real difference. More so now by incorporating the second tier retailers because we know how aggressive they are being in the marketplace right now.

LEON BYNER: What's the prognosis Angus, for blackouts over this summer? Because Danny Price and most other experts are saying they're going to happen.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well it's a real concern there's no doubt about it. I mean in South Australia and Victoria in particular we've seen withdrawal of the dispatchable capacity - that's the on-demand capacity, typically base load gas and coal - in recent years and that's put our grids in South Australia and Victoria in particular in a perilous state. Now AEMO is doing everything in it's power to make sure that we've got the reserve capacity we need in place to reduce those risks. But to be frank Leon, until we get more permanent capacity into the marketplace these risks will remain and that's why we brought forward the Underwriting New Generation Program, that's why I was down in South Australia only a few weeks ago looking at new projects, and it is why we're saying to the big energy companies we don't want to see further withdrawals of capacity. We've seen good news from the AGL in holding some of their supply in the market longer than they'd originally planned to do. But we need to see every bit of supply, particularly low cost supply, in the market going flat out, not only this summer as well-

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LEON BYNER: I'm going to stop it there because for some reason the digital recording is not working as it should. But basically I asked Angus Taylor the question about - he's going to put the big stick if you like to energy companies. So this is what he had to say.

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ANGUS TAYLOR: Well again the focus here is on getting prices down and making sure there's a fair deal for energy for Australian households - South Australian households and small businesses, Leon. This is another part of our suite of reforms to make sure that happens. Now all of these things work in concert but the truth is we saw withdrawal of capacity and withdrawal of supply, and bidding behaviour from the energy companies in recent years which was unacceptable and unsustainable. So we are introducing this legislation to make sure that the Treasurer and the ACCC have the powers they need to be able to hold the big energy companies to account. Look one of the interesting things coming out of the ACCC report is whilst we're seeing aggressive bidding from the second tier retailers, the bigger energy companies have been less aggressive and we want to see them providing those great deals. They haven't done that as they should have in the past and it is really crucial that there be powers available to the ACCC and the Treasurer to make sure that they are doing the right thing.

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LEON BYNER: That's the Energy Minister Angus Taylor.