Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Why is it so important to be upfront with the Australian people about the reliability and affordability of energy supplies? What are the consequences of not disclosing critical details, and how is the Albanese Labor government restoring leadership in the area?

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

I thank the honourable member for Reid for her question. I'm very pleased to inform her and the House that about six minutes ago the government's climate change bill passed the Senate 37 votes to 30. That's what restoring leadership is about. It is well on its way to becoming the law of the land. In relation to the leadership we have to show and the damage that we have to repair, the House knows the impacts of 10 years of delay, denial and dysfunction, What we've seen is 10 years of underinvestment in renewable energy and in electricity generation. That's what the act is all about: sending the message to investors that Australia is open for business.

The house will recall the four unfun facts of the previous government's record: the fact that four gigawatts of energy generation left the system and only one gigawatt came on; the fact that the previous minister promised almost $1 billion of investment and didn't deliver one watt of energy; the fact that their signature policy, Snowy 2.0, is running 18 months late; and the fact that the then minister, the now shadow Treasurer, intervened to change the law so that an electricity price rise would be hidden from the Australian people. As morally unacceptable as that is, I understand why he did it. The implications were very significant. What the previous minister hid from the Australian people was, for example, for New South Wales an average rise of $227 four a New South Wales household or up to $1,130 for a small business. That's what the now shadow Treasurer hid from the Australian people.

That's bad enough, but I saw the other day the shadow Treasurer interviewed on Sky News, and he was asked about this. He was asked about why he intervened to change the law to hide the electricity rise, and he said: 'No, this is a report from the AER, not from the government. Let's be very clear about that. It wasn't me.' The trouble is that, when you change the law, there's a record. They keep records of these things. At the front it says, 'Angus Taylor, Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction.' I know there was more than one of them, but this was actually you! On the back, the regulation change about the date of the report says, 'Omit "1 May", substitute "the first business day after 25 May"'. It didn't occur to the now shadow Treasurer that that was after the election. I table the regulation. This guy wants to be the Treasurer of Australia now. He's not fit to be the Treasurer of the local P&C, with what he's hidden from the Australian people. I apologise to the P&C treasurers around Australia; they're all fine people. But this is the leadership we are showing to get over 10 years of denial and dishonesty.