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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I note that, in his electorate, 1,128 Flynn households have introduced a cheaper home battery under our policy and have reduced their energy bill by 90 per cent or more and, in many cases, have reduced their bill to nothing and now get a rebate. That's a common story across rural and regional Australia, which I'm sure all honourable members welcome. Whether they're rural and regional members from the Labor Party, the National Party, One Nation or aren't sure, they all welcome this great news.

The fact of the matter is that, in Queensland, wholesale prices of electricity in May 2022 were $347 a megawatt hour. They are now $58 a megawatt hour. Some of the biggest reductions we saw in the last quarter were in Queensland, and that's a good thing. It's a direct result of the increase in renewables across our grid. We know there's much more work to do to ensure that every Australian benefits from the increase in renewables and solar. That's why we're doing things like solar sharer, which those opposite oppose. One thing that unites them is that they're opposed to free electricity in the middle of the day, apparently. They're the sorts of policies that this government will keep implementing and that those opposite simply don't understand.

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