Tom French (Moore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposites certainly have short memories, don't they? I rise to oppose this motion by the member for Wannon. Before I came to this place, I worked as an electrician. My work on the tools taught me a lesson I value to this day: you can't keep patching over faults and expect the system to hold. The truth is simple. A decade of delay and denial under those opposite left Australians with a broken energy system that was outdated, unreliable and far too expensive to run. So let's be clear: Labor is cleaning up their mess.

For 10 years, the coalition refused to listen to experts. They blocked investment and they allowed ageing coal stations to be run into the ground. Now, they have the gall to lecture this parliament about affordability. It was their neglect that made power unreliable and left households exposed to global shocks. Since coming to office, this government has taken action at every level to fix what the coalition broke. We delivered three rounds of direct energy bill relief for homes and small businesses—relief those opposite voted against every single time. We've acted to cap coal and gas prices, shielding Australians from the worst of the global energy crisis. And we're reforming the market itself. This includes new rules that ban sneaky price hikes, late payment fees and card surcharges and that force retailers to put hardship customers on their best available offer. That's real reform that makes a difference to the lives of everyday Australians, like people in my electorate of Moore.

We're helping bring their power prices down for good. We're expanding access to rooftop solar and cheaper home batteries. We're investing in energy efficient homes and we're building a modern renewable grid that doesn't rely on expensive, unreliable coal. And the results are coming through. According to the Australian Energy Regulator, wholesale prices have been falling since late 2020 thanks to increased renewables and government action. The Australian Energy Market Commission projects that prices will decline through to 2030 as more clean energy enters the grid. And the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed that renewable power—firmed with storage and backed by gas—is the lowest way to keep the lights on. In other words, the experts agree: renewables are the cheapest form of new energy, even when you include storage and transmission.

Recent research by Griffith University's Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research backs that up. They found that electricity costs today would be as much as 50 per cent higher if Australia had relied solely on coal and gas instead of pursuing renewables. Their modelling found that, across every major region, a grid based on renewables and storage is 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than the 'what if' scenario where we stuck with coal and gas. So let's be clear: investing in renewables isn't just about emissions; it's about economics. It's a smart way to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy for the long term.

Yet the member for Wannon still wants to take us down the nuclear fantasy path. That is the most expensive, the slowest and the riskiest energy option on the table. As an electrician, I can tell you this much: no household will see cheaper bills from a reactor that doesn't even exist.

Australians know who's actually doing the work to make energy fairer and more affordable. It's this government, cutting bills now, rebuilding what the coalition broke and making the system fair again. So, instead of finger-pointing, the opposition might consider apologising for the decade of dysfunction that landed us here in the first place. This motion is pure theatre—all heat and no light. It ignores the facts, the data and the progress being made. It underestimates Australians' intelligence and their lived reality. And that's insulting.

Labor has a plan, backed by experts, backed by industry and built for the future, to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable power to every Australian household. That's what we're doing. We're getting on with the job, and that's why I oppose this motion.

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