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

I thank my honourable friend for his question and his policy leadership in this House. I'm pleased to report to the honourable member that his constituents, and all Victorians, have avoided price rises in relation to electricity of $555 per household. For small businesses in Victoria, it's $955. In other states, the savings have been even bigger. Take South Australia, for example. Because of the intervention of the Albanese government last year, a projected 51 per cent price rise for those receiving the government's rebates has changed to a three per cent cut in energy prices in South Australia, which is a $992 saving for people in South Australia. And there are similar figures across the board: $843 of increases avoided in New South Wales, $819 in Queensland $488 in Tasmania and so on. These are important savings for households and small businesses.

The honourable member asked me what the response has been. Expert after expert has been making the point that it is directly the intervention of the government which has led to this bill relief—expert after expert has said that it is the intervention of the government. We saw Clare Savage, chair of the Australian Energy Regulator, said that it's this policy which reduces power prices—

See this speech in context