Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Labor's renewables-only obsession is causing Australians' energy bills to skyrocket, pushing 500 families a week into energy poverty. The national energy regulator is now warning that 90 per cent of Australia's existing baseload energy, which is used to firm up renewables, will leave the grid by 2034, within the next decade, and that our country will struggle to keep the lights on. Why is the Albanese government making life harder for Australian families who are already struggling to cope with Labor's cost-of-living crisis?

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

Order! The minister for climate change will not interject while questions are being asked.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't accept what the Leader of the Opposition has just said about the energy regulator. Indeed, AEMO, in a statement on 25 January, said this:

Record generation from grid-scale renewables and rooftop solar is triggering wholesale energy prices and greenhouse emissions to fall …

That's actually what they said.

The Leader of the Opposition asked me about, as he characterises it, a renewables-only approach. I say it is the market-led approach that leads you to the cheapest form of new energy, which is renewables. When we talk about the approaches that are there, we could take an approach that they have taken—the nuclear road. The Leader of the Opposition has said that that is where they want to go, down that road, in contravention of where the market will take us. He says that once they fix four outstanding issues—safety, disposal, cost and location—then they'll be right down that road. But the shadow minister came up with less impediments than the leader, to be fair; he says there are only three issues that they need to solve—technical feasibility, financial feasibility and community acceptability. Apart from that, it's all good!

Now, the climate is changing but the Liberal Party never will. We saw it on Nemesis; the now Leader of the Opposition used the National Energy Guarantee put forward by the former shadow Treasurer to try and take the leadership and the prime ministership—not through a vote of the people but through the backing of the hard right of the Liberal Party.

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

Order! The Prime Minister will pause.

Government members interjecting—

Members on my right will cease interjecting so I can hear from the Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My point of order is on relevance. The Prime Minister has a situation where 500 families a week have been pushed into energy poverty. Can he answer a straight question and give them—

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

Resume your seat. I remind all members, including the Leader of the Opposition, they are entitled to take a point of order on relevance.

The member for Reid will cease interjecting. The Prime Minister has another 30 seconds to answer the question. The Leader of the Opposition raises a relevant point of order. I ask the Prime Minister to return to the question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I suggest, if the Leader of the Opposition wants us to go down the nuclear road, he should stop having meltdowns.

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

The Prime Minister will return to the question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He is consistently angry—hopeless on energy but always obsessed with power.