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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I thank him for his passion when it comes to action on climate change. The honourable member asked me about energy bill relief, and last year we implemented the coal and gas caps, as well as the rebates. We saw in the latest inflation figures what the ABS said about the impact of that government decision. They said that, excluding the rebates, electricity prices would have risen 13.9 per cent in the 12 months to April 2024. They are policies the opposition voted against. We would have seen increases of up to $992 more that every Australian, including pensioners, would have had to pay. This year we have the $300 rebates. No-one has to apply, there's no paperwork to fill out; it's applied automatically.

The biggest impact on energy prices is what determines the cost of generation and the capital cost of generating electricity. What's also important is that these new forms of electricity can be deployed quickly. The honourable member asked me what policies we rejected, and last week we saw a report which underlines why we have rejected nuclear power for Australia—because it's very expensive and it takes a long time to deploy. As it happens, that report was delivered on the same day the shadow Treasurer was at the National Press Club. We wouldn't call it a triumph of an appearance—nevertheless, he was there. We're talking about billions of dollars of expenditure, and the shadow Treasurer was asked for a response to GenCost. The shadow Treasurer said, 'Lots of people bandy numbers around nuclear and other energy sources.' That was it. The shadow Treasurer, was asked for a response to the nation's premier scientific organisation, and all he could say was, 'Lots of people bandy numbers around.'

To be fair to the member of Hume, he has previously expressed views more eloquently about nuclear power—when he was the energy minister. He was asked at one point why the government he was a member of didn't deploy nuclear power and he said, 'The economics of traditional nuclear power stations have not typically worked in recent years.' He has also said, 'The key is to get prices down,' and: 'Nuclear's not going to help me in that process. As you know, it's a long way off. I know that sector pretty well.' He said, on another occasion:

Well, it's just long time frames. I know the industry pretty well and it will be a long time before we would realistically have nuclear on the ground as a solution for this problem.

To be fair to the member for Hume, he wasn't the only energy minister in that government. There was another one who was secretly commissioned, and he said about nuclear:

It is very costly to set it up in the first instance so I don't think we can be naive to just how difficult it is to get off the ground.

The Australian people are entitled to ask: if it's such a good idea, why didn't they do it in their nine years in office? They had 22 energy policies and the only thing they didn't try was nuclear energy. (Time expired)

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