Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Former ACTU president and member for Throsby, Jenny George, has written in relation to your government's failure to deliver a $275 reduction in power bills, 'With each broken promise, trust diminishes. Social licence has fallen away in regional areas carrying the burden of the transition.' Prime Minister, why should Australians trust your government on energy prices after this broken promise?

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

I thank the member for his question. Jenny George was indeed a fine president of the ACTU who represented working people day in day out while she was there. Then of course she came into the electorate of Throsby and now she is an Australian columnist. Sometimes people change. Sometimes they change. It happens. Mark Latham once sat as Leader of the Opposition. Sometimes that happens, and, when it happens, that is okay too.

What we have done is make sure that we are delivering on our commitment that we made to take action on climate change. We know that those opposite want to have a debate about our plan for renewables, firmed by gas, with their plan for—I don't know what—between now and the 2040s, when nuclear will come in. A couple of little facts: nuclear energy peaked as a proportion of global energy in 1996 and has been falling ever since. The number of nuclear reactors worldwide peaked in 2002—22 years ago—and last year the world added 460 gigawatts—

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

The Prime Minister will pause. The member for Nicholls is seeking a point of order.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance—it was about reduction in power bills and broken promises and trust diminishing. The Prime Minister is not addressing that.

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

The Prime Minister is talking about energy prices. It's a pretty broad question with a preamble about a newspaper article. It wasn't a short question, I think, would be a fair statement. We will listen to the Prime Minister to make sure he is being directly relevant, and I believe he is. If you ask about energy prices, I don't know what he is going to say but he is going to give an answer on that topic.

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

There are a number of articles. She is a regular columnist for The Australian. Good luck to Jenny George. I wish her well. We are talking about a plan to go forward, as the world is. That plan is being driven by renewables and the shift that's happening with the transition to clean energy. That is what is happening. That's why the world last year added 460 gigawatts of new non-hydro renewables, while nuclear energy generation went backwards by one gigawatt. The United States added 39 gigawatts of new renewables last year and no nuclear. Last year, China added 217 gigawatts of new renewables and only one gigawatt of new nuclear. The reason why the world is transitioning to clean energy is because its leaders understand not only is that good for the environment, it's also good for their economies. That is why Australia is a part of that global transition that's occurring. Those opposite want to press the pause button, don't have any plan for between now and 2040s and won't tell us how much their plan that will contribute some four per cent of our energy needs in the 2040s will cost.