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

I thank the member for his question and for his leadership in this House. Through you, Mr Speaker, could I give a shout out to his very hardworking electorate staff in his electorate office in Coburg who do great things for the people of Wills in not always easy circumstances.

The honourable member asked about cost-of-living relief. I am pleased to tell him that, as of yesterday, with the delivery of the Albanese government's energy bill relief and the reductions in energy prices in the default market offer and the Victorian market offer, the average energy price for a household in Victoria is down 23 per cent. For small businesses, it is down 15.5 per cent. They don't like it; they don't like the news. It doesn't change the news when energy prices are coming down.

This is in addition—for the member for Wills—to the 78,000 taxpayers in his electorate who are getting a tax cut on average of $31 a week. That is what real cost-of-living relief looks like. People who are doing it tough deserve a government with a detailed plan to deliver cost-of-living relief now, not some fantasy plan in decades' time which will backfire and put prices up, but real cost-of-living relief now.

And we have medium-term plans. Our medium-term plan is the capacity investment scheme, which underpins new renewable energy in our country. Renewable energy is very different to nuclear energy—because I am asked about the differences. Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy and nuclear is the most expensive form of energy and they don't go too well together. We saw that impact analysis from the independent office of impact assessments about our capacity investment scheme, which said, 'Consumers are expected to face lower retail electricity prices on average and a reduction in reliability risks.'

We have also seen today the chair of the WA Economic Regulation Authority say, 'Carving out space in the power system for nuclear to operate around the clock would require putting on hold large-scale renewable generation'. That is the fact. Members opposite, when they are saying the quiet bit out loud, acknowledge it. The Leader of the National Party said he wants a cap on renewable energy in Australia. I give credit to the Leader of the National Party. He is calling the shots over there at the moment. He is writing their economic policy. I give credit where it is due. The Leader of the National Party is running the show. The problem is, when the Leader of the National Party is running the show, when it comes to economics or energy, that is bad news for the Australian people. But it is great news for the Leader of the National Party and he should get credit for it, because he is determining the policy which sees nuclear come in and renewables go out.

We have seen the member for Hinkler say we should have less renewables and we should curtail renewables. The fact of the matter is the Leader of the Opposition wants a blank cheque for a bad deal, but it is the Australian people who would pay the price for that bad deal by it bringing in more expensive energy.

See this speech in context