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

I thank the honourable member for her question and, again, it is a very fair question on behalf of an Australian business. Australian businesses deserve a government focused on reducing energy costs and on modernising the energy grid. That is exactly what we have been doing and that is exactly what those opposite failed to do, with 22 failed energy policies over 10 years. Even the Leader of the Opposition just a few minutes ago denied that renewables are the cheapest form of energy. They just don't get it. I suspect the Leader of the Opposition really does know it but has to appease the climate-denying far right of her party for her hold on her job. We know from a report out today from IEA, which says renewables are the lowest-cost technology for new-build electricity generation. Renewables are now the most cost-competitive option globally for new electricity generation, with costs about 40 to 50 per cent lower than the nearest fossil fuel option.

We have the Leader of the Opposition dropping net zero, proposing maybe new coal, not new coal—we are not sure; the Liberal Party's party room couldn't even work it out. We know that it was not in their press release. It was in their glossy document that they would support new coal-fired power. After the Collinsville debacle, where they announced a new coal-fired power station in north Queensland which was never built, that is an understandable reticence by those opposite. We, on the other hand, have a clear plan to help Australian businesses and Australian families with lower energy prices. We have seen energy prices fall by a third in wholesale terms in the last quarter. We think that is a good thing; they think that is a bad thing.

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