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

And, by their reaction, the opposition show what they think about that support for Australian households. They've shown that they've got, to be fair, different priorities, which I'll get to momentarily. But we believe direct support for Australian households is an appropriate priority for the government of Australia, and, of course, we know that there's also a lot more to do.

That's why we know we need more electricity generation. As I said to the House yesterday, it's a good thing that, while in the decade of coalition government four gigawatts of dispatchable energy left our grid, in the three years of the Albanese government four gigawatts of dispatchable energy have entered the grid. That's the contrast of approach. Of course, in addition to that, we've added 15 gigawatts of renewables. That's in addition to the four gigawatts.

The interesting thing about the 15 gigawatts of new renewable energy that's been added in the last three years is that that's more than the opposition would add in nuclear power by 2050. We've added more in three years than they would need the next 25 to deliver. The other thing about those gigawatts that we've added over the last three years is that the vast bulk of that investment has come from the private sector. The vast bulk has come from private companies, facilitated by government policy but funded by the private sector, because on this side of the House we—the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and I—have the view that, if the private sector can do something, they should do it, not the taxpayer. That's what we think on this side of the House.

On the other side of the House, they have a different view. The member asked me what would make Australians worse off, and what would make Australians worse off is unnecessary taxpayer expenditure. Under the opposition's own policy, they would spend every dollar of their nuclear policy from the taxpayer. When the taxpayer pays for something the private sector could pay for, that means the taxpayer is worse off, and it's got to be paid for by cuts to government expenditure.

We know they have $350 billion of cuts, and then they've got to pay for the nuclear policy and then they've got to pay for the lunch policy. We also believe that the private sector should pay for bosses' lunches. They're against support for households, but they're for taxpayer funded barramundi for bosses. Those are the priorities made, the decisions made, by the Leader of the Opposition. That's why he is such a risk to the taxpayer and that's why he's such a risk to Australia. He doesn't think through his policies. He is always happy to throw taxpayer money at his mates. He's happy to throw taxpayer money at nuclear energy and taxpayer money at lunch for bosses, when we believe in the private sector. That's why the opposition is so risky for Australia.

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