Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator McAllister. Last week you stated that, without Labor's temporary, one-off energy bill subsidy, electricity prices would have risen by 15.4 per cent since June 2023. Minister, can you please clarify how much electricity prices will rise once this one-off subsidy ends just after the election.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Energy prices are a serious issue for households, and they're a serious issue for businesses. Our No. 1 priority is delivering cost-of-living relief for households and businesses, including through the support that we're providing for energy bills. People are doing it tough, but we are seeing green shoots, and, as you've indicated in your question to me, there is some indication that we are seeing electricity prices fall. The challenge is, of course, that those on the other side voted against that energy price relief. They voted against it, and they want to wind back those rebates that are going out at the moment to Australian families and to Australian businesses. Their plan would actually mean higher power prices.

I think the most interesting thing, of course, when you're asked about price, is that our plan for the electricity system is long term and is to ensure that we are making investments in the cheapest form of new generation that there is, and that is firmed renewables. The opposite, of course, is an utterly reckless plan to invest in the most expensive form of energy that—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister McAllister, please resume your seat. Senator Duniam?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance: I asked about how much power prices are going to be going up after the subsidy comes off, not about all the other extraneous matters.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister talked about energy prices, and the minister is being relevant to your question.

Honourable senators interjecting—

Order across the chamber! Minister McAllister, please continue.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When we talk about the future of the energy system, the truth is that the plan that is being promulgated by those opposite is for the most expensive form of energy that there is, to be delivered in more than a decade's time, well after it is required. Independent analysis suggests that that could add at least $1,200 to the average bill for a four-person household. It would deliver less than four per cent of the energy that we actually require. It won't be delivered until 2040, according to CSIRO, and it could cost $600 billion—a source of funding for which has yet to be provided by a coalition that is advocating for a scheme that is uncosted, unspecified and will occur on some unknown timetable.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, first supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, given electricity prices are being artificially suppressed by 15.4 per cent, according to your estimates, they're likely to go up by at least that much or more over the 12 months from June 2024 when your subsidy comes to an end. Will the government make taxpayers foot the bill by extending its payments for another year, at a cost of $3.5 billion, or will electricity users foot the bill directly instead?

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government will continue to do everything that we responsibly can to help households and businesses at a time that we acknowledge is genuinely difficult for many, many people. It's been our singular focus over the course of this year and, indeed, the year before—making sure that households and businesses are supported by delivering cost-of-living relief and that little bit of extra support, all of which you have opposed. It doesn't matter whether it's cheaper medicines, cheaper child care, higher wages, energy bill relief or tax cuts. All of those things have been met with opposition by those opposite. So, when people talk to us about prices and about the future and about the cost of living, there is only one group of people in this chamber who have consistently and persistently sought to deal with the challenges that Australians are facing, and it's the people on this side of the chamber. Everybody sitting over there can go to an election or go into the next year understanding that they have done very, very little indeed to help. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, second supplementary?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, the Prime Minister sold an energy plan to Australians at the last election in which he promised 97 times that Labor's plans would cut at least $275 off household energy bills by 2025—about 20 per cent, at that time, of an average bill in Sydney. What's your message to those households who are now paying 10 per cent more in real terms since 2022 and whose only bill relief is delivered via a one-off subsidy at the expense of rate cuts instead of the better energy system they were promised by you?

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked about the energy system and I'm asked about the future of the energy system, and it's a curious line of questioning from a group of people whose proposition is that they will deliver the most expensive form of energy available in a decade's time. And it's curious, too, to reflect on the actual record, because what was the approach taken by those opposite over the decade that they were in power? It was to sweat coal assets, and what did that produce? It produced four gigawatts of dispatchable power leaving the system over the period. It produced 24 coal-fired power stations bringing forward or announcing their closure dates, and not a thing was done about it. Do you know what their plan is for the next decade? It's to do exactly the same thing—just sweat those assets, people, and you'll get exactly the same result that you got the last time you tried it.