Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

This MPI is extraordinary. They're raising questions about policies and energy prices. It's extraordinary because (1) they had no energy policies—it was energy policy chaos—and (2) we heard from all the experts and all the economic commentators that our policies—and, yes, Deputy Speaker, we do have policies in this area—actually have been far from inflationary. In fact, they have been helping to manage inflation. Specifically, they do not drive up energy prices. In fact, they have had the opposite impact. It's quite an interesting take from the opposition when even their Treasurer went on national television and couldn't remember which energy policies they had actually supported and opposed. But I'd be happier to discuss our policies which might give them a bit of help when they're going on telly again.

We intervened in the market to ensure that Australians were shielded from the worst of the power price shocks we've seen internationally. We're seeing the benefits of that policy, with power prices being significantly lower than they would have been expected to be without our intervention. Those opposite scoffed; we got on with the job. Let me tell you about another policy, the Energy Price Relief Plan. This is providing targeted energy bill relief and investing in cleaner, cheaper energy for the future. Unlike those opposite, we know that action is needed right now to keep our prices down and deliver the energy system we need for the future. That's why we've partnered with states and territories to shield Australian families and businesses from the worst impacts of the energy price spikes, driven by global events that those opposite simply choose to ignore.

Part of this plan is the $1.5 billion Energy Bill Relief Fund, another policy they might have forgotten about. This targeted and temporary support will provide hundreds of dollars of additional bill relief to eligible Australian families and small businesses. I'm personally delighted that eligible households in my home state will receive an additional $250 off their power bills as a direct result of this policy, making a huge difference to household bottom lines. As a result of the interventions we've made and the subsidies that we are providing, it's projected that families in my home state of Victoria will have an annual power bill that is $555 cheaper than it would have been. That's a real difference to the budget bottom line for households in Victoria, and we know that those savings are replicated right across the country.

Maybe the opposition posed this MPI because they weren't listening when we reinforced our commitment to implement the long overdue Capacity Investment Scheme, a policy that will unlock around $10 billion of private and public sector investment in clean dispatchable storage and generation to ensure reliable and affordable electricity supply and to reduce our exposure to high-cost coal and gas prices over the medium and long term. The opposition might be wondering about our Powering Australia policy. Our government is refusing to be asleep at the wheel, like they were when they were in government. They can deny it all they like, but we know that renewable energy is cheaper energy. They denied and decried it for decades.

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