Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my honourable friend for the question, and I enjoyed campaigning with her during the election campaign on multiple occasions. I said before the election that she'd be a wonderful member of parliament, and I say after the election that she's a very welcome member of parliament in this House.

On 3 May the Australian people gave the Albanese government a clear instruction to keep on going with the task of building a better energy system for our country, and that's exactly what we intend to do. I'm pleased that, overnight, we saw new figures showing that the financial year just ended was a record for renewable energy investment, double the financial year before. There were more than four gigawatts of new renewable energy connected. This is actually energy that is up and running and connected to the system today, and that is a good thing.

We're also getting on with the job of delivering our cheaper home batteries policy, which we sought a mandate from the Australian people for. As the Prime Minister said before, we didn't wait for parliament to sit; this came into force on 1 July. I'm happy to give the House an update that today, three weeks after it came into force—an update even from yesterday for the House—11,045 households across Australia have taken advantage of the cheaper home batteries policy, saving on their energy bills and reducing their emissions. This is a policy we designed for the suburbs and regions of Australia. We designed it for those people in the suburbs and regions, and I'm pleased to share with the House where this policy is being taken up the most. It will be of some interest to the House. Which postcode has taken up the cheaper homes batteries policy the most in all of Australia? It's 2570, Camden, in the electorate of Hume—the electorate which is most embracing of the Albanese government's cheaper home batteries policy, showing that we're getting on with the job.

But the member for Brisbane asked us if we're being asked to consider any alternatives, and I'm sorry to say we are. I've been given a copy of the coalition's anti-net-zero bill. I'm not sure if the Leader of the Opposition has seen it, but I have. It came into my possession, and it's going to be moved by the member for New England. We saw the new dream team, the dream couple—the member for New England and the member for Riverina—out there this morning, backing each other in. The member for Riverina said on the Kieran Gilbert show, 'We're virile, and we're out there.' That's the member for New England and the member for Riverina. Now, this is not his Tinder profile; this is his dream ticket. He's not looking to swipe right; he's looking to swipe out the member for Maranoa. That's what he's trying to do.

They're trying to betray the member for Maranoa, but what they're really doing is betraying people in rural and regional Australia, because people in rural and regional Australia are the people who pay the price for drought and floods, which will be more common and more severe under climate change. Those people in rural and regional Australia have the most to gain out of the jobs and investment created by net zero. That's what the Albanese government gets; that's what those who would betray rural and regional Australia do not understand. (Time expired)

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