Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Albanese Labor government acting to help families and businesses with the cost of energy bills, and how does this differ from the other energy policies?

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

Can I thank my honourable friend for the question and recognise her climate leadership in this parliament. On 1 July every Australian will receive a tax cut and every Australian with an energy bill will receive energy bill relief—every single Australian. Also, I'm pleased to inform the member for Higgins and the House that, from today, Australians who want to reduce their bills and emissions by installing solar panels or batteries or energy efficiency can apply for a concessional loan under our Housing Energy Upgrades Fund—from today, with the first round of that funding open. These are practical and realistic steps to help Australians with cost-of-living pressure.

The honourable member asked me how it compares to other energy policies. I have to confess we are searching for alternative energy policies. We are searching for alternative energy policies; we've very little detail. But—to be fair—we are starting to see some of the contours of the opposition's policy emerge. I have to say I have very real differences with Senator Canavan, very real differences on policy, but he does tend to be pretty straightforward in what he thinks. Recently, he was asked about the opposition's alleged nuclear policy, and he said, 'But we need to build coal as well, in my view, because nuclear will take too long'—nuclear will take too long. We know from the CSIRO and so many experts that no nuclear in Australia will be up and running before 2040. Senator Canavan, as he always does, said the quiet bit out loud, because this is what it's all about: they want to delay renewables and keep coal in the system for longer because they just don't believe in renewable energy.

The government also passed the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill through the parliament in recent days. This was an opportunity for those opposite to talk about the regions, to talk about job creation and renewable energy, but what we heard from so many opposition members was about nuclear power and nuclear energy. We've got some of the searing policy insights—some of the detail, some of the policy insight. We had the member for Lyne say, 'Nuclear power stations are basically big kettles.' That was the big, searing policy contribution. The question is: where will those big kettles be?

An opposition member: The member for Lyons?

The member for Lyne, I said—Lyne! Where will the big kettles be? Will there be a big kettle next to the Big Banana? Where will they go?

Our friend the member for Gippsland is also very honest. He said:

It's premature to be ruling regions in or out … there is simply no proposal on the table right now.

Well, he's right about that. We know the Leader of the Nationals has polled the places where they want to put nuclear reactors. He's done opinion polling, but he won't release the details because, when it comes to an energy policy, these are not serious people. (Time expired)