Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Cafe owner Natalie Siegele in my electorate of Barker is at breaking point. She said, 'It's the worst it's been in my whole seven years of running the business.' The minister repeatedly promised to cut prices by $275 a year, but in fact energy bills for South Australian businesses are up $1,288. Why are Australian families facing higher prices and fewer choices because of this government's failed energy policy?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Lyons and the Treasurer will not interject before the minister speaks. It's the same rule for both sides. If that continues, people will leave the chamber. It is highly disorderly to interject when a member is not shown respect in asking a question, and equally before a minister speaks. If that continues, people will be warned and they will leave.

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 his question. I would have thought the honourable member would have welcomed the announcement last week by the Australian Energy Regulator that the regulated price or default market offer for small businesses in South Australia would fall by 8.2 per cent. Now, that is welcome news. It's not always the way a default market offer goes, because there was a default market offer in 2022 which showed not a fall in energy prices for small businesses in South Australia but a 5.7 per cent increase for small businesses in South Australia. But, to be fair to the honourable member, nobody knew. That was the effective policy of the government of the day: to keep it secret—to change the law so that nobody knew.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Fairfax will cease interjecting.

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

It was a pretty cunning plan—a very cunning plan by the member for Hume to deal with higher energy prices by keeping them secret. We, on the other hand, have been working to put in place coal and gas price caps to see prices come down, which the member for Barker and all his mates opposed and voted against, along with the energy bill relief that was in the Treasurer's budget for families and small businesses. So they actually voted for higher prices. They actually came into the parliament and argued for policies which would have stopped the 8.2 per cent reduction in energy bills for South Australian small businesses. I imagine that we're going to have quite a debate about energy bills between now and the next election, because government policy is very important when it comes to energy bills.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fairfax is warned.

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

Government policies can have an impact on energy bills—like, for example, if a government chose to bring in the most expensive form of energy available, which would be nuclear energy. We've seen the opposition drop their small modular reactor policy. We saw the small modular reactor—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hume has interjected about 20 times so far during question time, so he's going to cease interjecting—he's had a very good go—so I can hear from the member for Wannon on a point of order.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's relevance. Natalie wants to know when she's going to get her—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was the question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question wasn't that. The question was: why are Australians facing higher energy prices? Natalie was mentioned as part of the question. So that's the question. It's not correct to get up and simply say what you'd like to say. The minister is dealing with the end part of the question. He's obviously disagreeing with that part of the question, and he's going to answer it accordingly, I assume.

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

Well spotted, Mr Speaker. They've dropped their small modular reactor policy in the face of a 70 per cent cost increase for the only small modular reactor under development in the world, NuScale, to A$14 billion for one nuclear reactor. So now they're going with large nuclear reactor policy—six of them around the country. But the poster child for large nuclear reactors is Hinkley Point C in the United Kingdom, which has just come in at A$86 billion. That's their genius policy to put downward pressure on power prices. Today the Leader of the National Party was claiming, on Sky News, that nuclear policy would see bills go down—at $86 billion a pop for one reactor, and they want six. Let's bring on the debate.