ANGUS TAYLOR: Good morning. It's fantastic to be here at the Bureau of Meteorology Operation Centre with Andrew Johnson from the Bureau and Audrey Zibelman from AEMO to announce a very important strategic partnership between AEMO and the Bureau for a relationship that is crucial and a time when the National Electricity Market is changing dramatically. This partnership will ensure sharing of information, modelling, forecasting at a level and in a way that we haven't been able to do in the past because things are changing.

PETA CREDLIN: Joining me tonight to pull apart some of Labor's policy detail and discuss his Government's plans to bring down power prices is the Minister for Energy Angus Taylor. Angus, great to have you on the show - great to have you in person.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks for having me.

PETA CREDLIN: Difficult question to start off with - do Liberal Party family regard the party now as full of homophobic, women hating, climate change deniers?

PETA CREDLIN: Joining me tonight to pull apart some of Labor's policy detail and discuss his Government's plans to bring down power prices is the Minister for Energy Angus Taylor. Angus, great to have you on the show - great to have you in person.
ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks for having me.
PETA CREDLIN: Difficult question to start off with - do Liberal Party family regard the party now as full of homophobic, women hating, climate change deniers?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Welcome to Goulburn. A great city - Australia's first inland city that relies on affordable, reliable electricity and energy to be competitive, to be prosperous, and to employ the many people who are employed in this great region. It relies on affordable, reliable electricity for its agriculture, transport being a transport hub here on the Hume Highway, and also for agriculture and irrigation and the many important uses of energy in agriculture.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Welcome to Goulburn. A great city - Australia's first inland city that relies on affordable, reliable electricity and energy to be competitive, to be prosperous, and to employ the many people who are employed in this great region. It relies on affordable, reliable electricity for its agriculture, transport being a transport hub here on the Hume Highway, and also for agriculture and irrigation and the many important uses of energy in agriculture.

BEN FORDHAM: Well, Labor is facing a backlash against its energy policy, with businesses questioning how they will keep the lights on. Bill Shorten has unveiled his $215 million plan to install 100,000 battery storage systems in Australian homes - or on the side of Australian homes with solar on the roof. And he also wants to increase emissions reduction targets by - well, he wants to get it to 45 per cent by 2030. The policy has been slammed by the nation's largest electricity user; that's Tomago Aluminium Smelter. The boss has declared batteries are not the solution.

BEN FORDHAM: Well, Labor is facing a backlash against its energy policy, with businesses questioning how they will keep the lights on. Bill Shorten has unveiled his $215 million plan to install 100,000 battery storage systems in Australian homes - or on the side of Australian homes with solar on the roof. And he also wants to increase emissions reduction targets by - well, he wants to get it to 45 per cent by 2030. The policy has been slammed by the nation's largest electricity user; that's Tomago Aluminium Smelter. The boss has declared batteries are not the solution.

NICOLE CHVASTEK: And the federal Minister for Energy is with us right now. Angus Taylor, a very good afternoon to you and thank you so much for staying on the line there. I know you've been waiting for some time.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks for having me.

NICOLE CHVASTEK: We just heard Pat Conroy there talking about how there could be a NEG debated and perhaps even agreed on before Christmas if the Coalition debates it. Would the Coalition consider the NEG again?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I'm delighted to be here at Tomago Aluminium Smelter, near Newcastle with Matt Howell, the CEO of Tomago Aluminium. This facility, this business, like so many around Australia, depends for its existence, for its success, for its competitiveness on affordable, reliable power. I've been hearing this morning about how crucial it is that we continue to see downward pressure on electricity prices that's necessary to keep businesses like this sustainable and employing so many people here in Australia.

DAVID SPEERS: Yes, as I said this is clever politics from Labor to adopt what is the government's National Energy Guarantee, got so many statements on the record from Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg arguing why this National Energy Guarantee, why it's the only way to get prices down, prices will go up if we don't have it and so on. Plenty of business groups all backed it as well.