Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

The same legislation which enabled that intervention to cap the price of coal and gas enables direct rebates to Australian families and businesses—carefully designed to put downward pressure on inflation by reducing power prices directly, compared to what they would have been. I'm pleased to confirm that 5½ million households and a million businesses will benefit from that action. The Treasurer will, of course, outline more action this evening.

But there's a third element as well. We understand, on this side of the House, that reducing emissions and reducing bills are the same thing. We understand that if you make a house or a business more efficient, you reduce bills as well as emissions, and we happen to think that's a good thing. Call us old fashioned but on this side of the House we think that reducing bills and reducing emissions is a good thing. We know that Australia ranks 58th out of 63 on energy efficiency of households. We can do better. In particular, lower- and middle-income household need that support. So, again, we will see tonight strong action to help households reduce their bills and emissions, particularly for those who need assistance and particularly for small business. We've already announced our tax treatment of energy efficient investments by small business which will benefit hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country who want to reduce their emissions and reduce their bills, and we're going to help them do it.

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