Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Sterle, who I know, like every member within the government party room, supports cheaper energy for Australian households. The Albanese government is relentlessly focused on supporting Australians to deal with cost-of-living pressures. Whether it's cheaper child care, cheaper medicines, getting wages moving again or energy bill relief, it is the thing that I know motivates every single member of our Labor government. We know that that means making energy more affordable.

After the coalition's wasted decade in office, where we had—was it 21, 22, 23, 24 or 25 energy policies? I've lost count. After that decade, we're doing the heavy lifting now to ensure that we have cheap, clean and reliable energy into the future. That means investing in the cheapest form of energy—renewables—to support our energy grid over the long term. In the short term, it means important measures like direct energy bill relief that make things a bit easier for all Australians—support that we know that Mr Dutton and every member of the coalition opposed. They voted against our energy bill relief and tried to deny that support to Australians.

Now Mr Dutton and the coalition want to make power prices go nuclear. They are hell-bent on spending $600 billion of taxpayers' money on nuclear reactors, signing every taxpayer up to higher power prices for decades. We know that nuclear will take too long, cost too much and slug every Australian with $1,200 extra on their power bill every year. But the big question that remains unanswered is: how will they pay for it? You don't just find $600 billion lying around the couch. The only possible answer is that Mr Dutton will have to make savage cuts to essential services to pay for his slow, expensive nuclear reactors. Australians have a right to know what will be cut, and Mr Dutton has to tell them now.