Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm grateful to the member for North Sydney for the topic of today's MPI debate. It's a really important conversation to have. It shouldn't really be a matter of debate that climate action and cost pressure relief are intimately connected. Sensible economic management and action on climate change are two sides of the same coin.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy earlier was talking about the false duality and false dichotomy that took hold in this country, as perpetrated by those opposite, that taking action on climate change was somehow at odds with our best economic future. The reality is that those two things are intimately and inextricably connected. They go to the real trilemma that the minister talked about. We want lower prices when it comes to energy, we want more-secure and more-resilient energy systems and we want to reduce carbon emissions. The answer to all three of those things lies in the same direction. That's precisely why, eight months in, this government have taken a number of steps in that direction, and we have more ahead of us. It's why the Labor Party has been making that argument and taking actions of that kind, whenever it has had the chance, for almost all of the 21st century.

The part of the conversation we can't have on this topic in this House is best represented by all those empty benches opposite. Sadly, the Liberal and National parties still are in denial about the reality of climate change and about the true nature of the economic and energy system transformation that the globe is experiencing and that Australia has to be a part of. Without taking that kind of action, there is only going to be social, economic and environmental harm on a very significant scale, and Australia will be one of the countries most affected by every aspect of that—socially, economically and environmentally.

There are cost pressures in Australia right now. We all know that. It is worth thinking about who is at the sharpest end of those cost pressures. It is people on low and fixed incomes, typically younger people but also pensioners, single parents and people in outer metropolitan regions and in rural and regional Australia. That's why we are providing relief as part of what we are doing and we are undertaking broader policy and program repair.

An aspect of that is going particularly to those who are most affected. Within some of the programs we've mentioned, there's $100 million dedicated to ensuring that 25,000 low-income households receive access to solar energy. That's a big issue in Australia. We have seen record penetration of home solar, but it's mostly concentrated amongst those who are fortunate enough to own their own homes. People who are renters and particularly people in social housing haven't had the benefit of that technology, and we need to make measures to make sure they get to enjoy the cost benefits of solar energy and storage.

Similarly, we put $1.9 billion into the Powering the Regions Fund because we know that regional Australia needs that kind of investment because it will be especially affected by climate change and because those communities are generally among the lower socioeconomic communities in Australia. It's bizarre when you have their representatives in the National Party effectively, by their actions, seeking to condemn people in rural, regional and remote Australia to being second-class citizens when it comes to access to the cheapest, cleanest, most efficient form of energy.

The reality is that people are experiencing these cost-of-living pressures today because the coalition government was an economic basket case. Nine years with no national energy policy. Nine years of pretending climate change was some kind of bizarre international communist plot. Nine years of ignoring all of the evidence staring us in the face that supported what experts had been saying—that Australia was particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and that we had particular advantages to be gained and benefits to be achieved by getting on with being part of the renewable energy transition.

That's exactly what this government is going to do. Eight months in, we have legislated an improved target, we have dedicated funds through Rewiring the Nation and Powering the Regions, and we have introduced tax reductions when it comes to electric vehicles. All of those things in eight months. So I say to young Australians in particular—because there is a significant portion of the community that didn't get a chance to vote for this government but will get a chance to vote in elections to come—that they should be thinking about the direction we're going in and they should be voting in favour of the progress we are now making towards being a renewable energy superpower.

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