Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Cadell for the question. I can say that, with the implementation of the Powering Australia plan which we have in this budget, $21.9 billion is going to fixing the energy mess of 10 years of denial and delay. There were 22 policies, none of them landed. With the investments that we are making in Powering Australia, we will be putting downward pressure on energy prices over time. This is why this work has become more urgent than ever. We need to put all of our effort into implementing these policies and making sure that we are fixing the grid and getting more renewable energies into the system so that we actually have a government that supports the energy transformation that is needed and was denied to the Australian people by the former government. This challenge is the one that is perhaps most urgent in terms of our economy and in terms of cost-of-living pressures on households and businesses. We understand that.

The budget has forecast expected increases in gas and electricity prices over the next year. Depending on which state or territory you are in, the impact of that will differ, but we do acknowledge that it is a significant impost on households and businesses. In the ACT, for example, where we have 100 per cent renewable energy, prices between 2021 and 2022 are going down. That is the reality because renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. We understand that, and that is exactly why we need to put more effort into cleaning up the energy mess that you guys left behind. (Time expired)