"This government is taking real action on energy relief. In the short term, we've intervened to lessen the increase of energy prices despite the global pressure on prices. We are investing in households and small businesses to ensure they can reduce energy usage and save on household bills. We are lowering emissions, we are lowering energy usage and we are lowering prices."

Address to the House of Representatives, Matters of Public Importance - Cost of Living

Wednesday 30 May 2023

It's always interesting to hear those opposite talking about our caucus room. You can understand maybe they might want to join us there one day!

If the opposition wanted to have any credibility about energy prices, they had an opportunity last year to support our price relief plan, and they voted against that. They try to pretend they didn't. There were a number of speeches in here where you'd think that that was a moment that disappeared from their collective memory.

I welcome any opportunity to talk about climate action, energy transition and tackling cost of living under the Albanese Labor government. Just last week, I joined the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Assistant Minister for Climate Change, as well as my ACT colleague, the member for Fenner, down in the suburb of Stirling—a sterling part of the electorate of Bean! We were there on a typically cold Canberra morning—I know that many of you have been experiencing cold Canberra mornings in the last week and a half—to visit the home of a local resident. Todd's family home is the gold-standard for energy efficiency in Australia, with double glazing, insulation and solar panels installed over the last few years. As a consequence, his family's energy bills have fallen substantially.

The Albanese government wants to make it easier for households like Todd's and small businesses to access energy savings and upgrades. That's why we're investing $1.6 billion from our recent budget to provide various means of supporting households and businesses to transition to more energy efficient homes and businesses, to convert to electricity where they choose to and to invest in forms of renewable energy and storage. We are facilitating this, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's low-interest loans, directly into social housing through a partnership with the states and territories, and, of course, there are tax concessions for small businesses to do so. We on this side of the house know that when you can save on energy, you save on bills.

When the Australian Energy Regulator provided the government with a default market offer forecast late last year, customers were facing price rises of between 40 and 50 per cent, price rises that were untenable. We on this side understood that and we acted. There was no endless press release about what we might do, no lump of coal, no hi-vis—there was action. We brought parliament back urgently, and the legislation was passed before Christmas.

Those opposite, as I said before, voted against it. Their Christmas present to the Australian people was to vote against that price relief. The opposition voted for higher energy bills for households and small businesses, yet every day they come back to this chamber and like to pretend that's not what they did. But of course, thanks to that decisive action, the AER has confirmed that power bills are up to $500 less for residential customers than they would have been without the government's intervention and up to $1,300 less than they would have otherwise been for small businesses. I think we know who the real party for small business is.

This government's Energy Price Relief Plan has taken the sting out of power prices. Here, in the ACT, we are run on 100 per cent renewables, and, as a result, the impact of power price increases has been a lot less here than in other jurisdictions. We on this side want more of Australia to benefit from long-term, ambitious renewable energy policy.

What is the alternative to this government's detailed and deliverable energy policy? Those opposite would have you believe that only they have the solution, and they have gone nuclear. It is The Simpsons answer to energy prices. Their solution is a form of electricity that would be ready to go in almost 10 years, if we're lucky, and we know that the cost of it is prohibitively high.

This government is taking real action on energy relief. In the short term, we've intervened to lessen the increase of energy prices despite the global pressure on prices. We are investing in households and small businesses to ensure they can reduce energy usage and save on household bills. We are lowering emissions, we are lowering energy usage and we are lowering prices.