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

I thank my honourable friend for her question and her contribution in this House since her recent arrival. In six days time, energy bill relief flows to the Australian people because of the Albanese government. In six days time, every single Australian with an energy bill will get relief from this government, following the relief in last year's budget. And, of course, what's also happening is that wholesale energy prices, which were $375 a megawatt hour when we came to office, were $76 a megawatt hour in the first quarter of this year. That's less—$76 a megawatt hour is less than the $375 that the previous government presided over. That's because renewable energy is up 25 per cent since we came to office and because this government put caps on the price of coal and gas.

The honourable member also asked me what policies we have rejected. We rejected the thought bubble which says that you could introduce the most expensive form of energy known anywhere in the world to Australia and it would somehow, magically, see bills go down. We're not the only people who have rejected it. We saw Rod Sims, the former chair of the ACCC, say yesterday that it would increase energy prices by more than $200 a year. We've seen Dylan McConnell say that it will increase prices by $400 to $500 a year. We've seen Roger Dargaville said it'll increase prices by up to $1,000 a year. Whichever one of those it is, it's more than Australians are paying today. Whoever's right, it's more than Australians are paying today.

It gets worse, because what we know from the opposition's thought bubble is—a few things. We don't know the costs and we don't know the modelling, but we know a few things. We know that this once great party of free enterprise has said they're going to run it all. They're going to own all of them. They're going to run it all. The shadow Treasurer a couple of weeks ago said he's against subsidies; it's all got to stand up for itself. And then the Leader of the Opposition says, 'We're going to own it all.' The shadow Treasurer cleared it up and said, 'Don't worry; it's off budget.' That means they've got to make money on it. So they're going to spend hundreds of billions and then they're going to make money on it, which means they're going to charge more.

Now, the shadow Treasurer has said that off-budget funds are risky, they increase taxes, they increase inflation and they're bad for the economy, and he calls them 'sneaky'. He's going to repeal $10 billion in off budget for housing. They're opposed to $20 billion in off budget for transmission. But they're fine with $600 million off budget for nuclear energy; that's just fine. Apparently that's not going to increase taxes, that's not going to increase interest rates and that's not risky for Australians. This half-baked yellow-cake idea of the opposition's falls apart every time it gets exposed to any scrutiny at all. It's just underlines the fact that this Leader of the Opposition is a huge risk to Australia's economic future. (Time expired)

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