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

I thank the honourable member for his question. As the Treasurer very eloquently pointed out to the House yesterday when the inflation figures were actually released, and as the ABS itself makes crystal clear, to use its words in relation to the annual increase:

This is due to the timing of when the extended EBRF—

Energy Bill Relief Fund—

rebates were applied in some capital cities …

That's what the ABS said yesterday, and of course that's the case: the rebates are paid in different months, and that is reflected in the figures in different ways.

It's also the case that there are other reports out over the last week that the opposition has chosen not to mention, like the Australian Energy Regulator's State of the energy market report, which refers to energy prices and points out:

… Australia's coal plants are aging and increasingly costly to operate. Many require high levels of maintenance and refurbishment to keep them running. They are also prone to unplanned outages, sometimes prolonged outages, which make them increasingly unreliable.

The report said:

Heading into spring and early summer, prices remained higher than the previous year amid a higher rate of brown coal outages.

So these are the sorts of issues that the government and the energy grid are dealing with. We're dealing with the fact that, under those opposite, four gigawatts of dispatchable power left the grid and only one gigawatt came on.

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