Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

We are now drawing towards the end of 1 July, a day that has seen millions of Australians waking up to earning more, keeping more of what they earn and, for millions more still, receiving the benefit of a number of measures that our government has put in place in order to provide families across Australia with targeted, measured cost-of-living relief.

From today, millions of Australians, 10 million households and one million small businesses will receive a $300 and a $325 rebate for their power bills, respectively. This was done as part of a $3½ billion package to provide energy bill relief as widely as possible and is one of a number of measures, as part of our recent budget, that are squarely aimed at easing cost-of-living pressures for millions of Australians—measures squarely designed to make life easier for families doing it tough whilst at the same time not shifting those pressures onto inflation.

Those opposite have had a crack at reducing power bills for Australians both in government and in opposition—something that, in both cases, is a mirage. We all remember the member for Hume's big attempt at keeping power prices down under the Morrison government. Quite simply, you just need to be aware that the prices are about to rise before an election, with the Australian Energy Regulator about to deliver its default market offer. This offer contains an inconvenient truth that might interfere with yet another one of your confected narratives about what a Liberal-National government means. So what do you do about it? You simply delay the release of the new and increased energy prices contained in the default market offer until after the election. Are they going up? Are they going down? Well, until they are released to the public, you might as well call it Schrodinger's power prices. You can only know what's happening with any certainty once you peek inside the box. In opposition, they make hiding the power prices from the public look like child's play.

Speaking of child's play, those opposite put out a thought bubble not just to be an answer in Australia reaching net zero by 2050 but also to reduce power prices and firm up base-load capacity. A year and a half after this thought bubble, they release the detail of this policy on a 4½-page pamphlet—real paper, real ink and real staples but not a real solution. They would have the Australian people believe another one of their furphies that somehow nuclear power is a panacea to Australia's future power generation, despite no credible evidence existing of this working, the numbers stacking up and the costings panning out. Not a single major player in Australia's energy industry, renewables or otherwise, had been asking for it.

If nuclear power made sense, you would have companies owning power-generating assets clamouring at the gates to repeal it, but, instead, the new Liberal Party way is to shun these companies and say that they don't know what they're talking about and to bring government back into the power generation game. On the one hand, if they hadn't, Australia would be paying more for their power through the cost recovery of building one of these plants in the next couple of decades once it is built—unless you believe that they can somehow believe the Leader of the Opposition that he would be able to get it done at a world-record pace. Maybe he knows a guy in the nuclear reactor building business that operates out of a small shack with 50 grand in the bank. I'm sure he'd award them a contract. It's what he did as home affairs minister. It's all he knows.

When the CSIRO and AEMO released their GenCost report saying that nuclear power is going to be more expensive, I'd be listening to them rather than shrugging that off. It's very easy to dispute modelling when you aren't releasing yours—if any modelling even exists to underpin the 4½ pages of policy. Meanwhile, the opposition wants to continue to place a mirage of nuclear power in front of Australia, disputing science and scientists because of vibes alone and turning this into some twisted form of 'Australia's next top modelling'.

The Albanese Labor government is continuing to invest in a future that includes firm renewables along with gas. We are investing in cost-of-living relief for all Australians in our budget, and, when it comes to this nuclear pipedream, we are investing in the intelligence of the Australian people to know exactly what the Liberal and National parties are actually doing every time they enter into the energy debate saying that they are for renewable energy.

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