Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In Griffith, energy affordability is a real cost-of-living issue. Families are opening their power bills and doing the sums again. Small businesses are watching every overhead. People are budgeting carefully and still feeling the strain. We know that. We have acted to ease that pressure, and we know there is more work to do. But the clean energy transition is not only about affordability; it is also about the kind of environment we leave to the next generation. It's about cutting emissions, reducing pollution and moving away from an ageing coal system that is becoming more expensive, less reliable and harder on our climate. For communities like Griffith, those goals belong together. Cleaner energy and cheaper energy go hand in hand.

That is why the Albanese Labor government's plan is clear—more cheaper, cleaner energy and a better deal for households. We are modernising the grid so Australia can make better use of the best sun and wind in the world. We are backing renewables, firmed by storage, hydro and gas, because that is the practical path to lower bills, lower emissions and a more reliable system. The Australian Energy Market Operator's own planning says the lowest-cost path for Australia is renewable energy connected through better networks, firmed with storage and backed by gas when needed. So the answer is not delay. The answer is to keep building the modern system properly and to do it in an orderly way.

Australia's renewable transition gathered pace in 2025, with a record number of projects given the green light. Since May 2022, more than 19 gigawatts of variable renewable generation has been installed across the country. That includes more than 10 gigawatts of rooftop solar, 4.6 gigawatts of utility solar and 4.4 gigawatts of wind. That is enough to power more than six million households. In the September 2025 quarter, AEMO reported that higher renewable output and lower market volatility helped bring down wholesale electricity prices across every region of the national electricity market. Wholesale prices averaged $87 per megawatt hour nationally, down 27 per cent on the year before, and Queensland recorded the lowest average quarterly spot price in the market, at $72 per megawatt hour. The Australian Energy Regulator said wholesale electricity spot prices have fallen since late 2022 thanks to lower fuel costs, increased renewable energy and government action. AEMO also reported a record 77.2 per cent renewable contribution on one day in September, alongside an 11 per cent lift in rooftop solar output for the quarter.

This shows the direction we need to keep moving in. More renewables and more storage in the system mean less dependence on unreliable coal fired power and more protection from the price shocks that come when ageing generators fail. It also means a cleaner grid, lower emissions and real progress towards the climate goals Australians expect us to meet. As the Clean Energy Council said:

The more renewables in the system, the less we need to depend on unreliable coal-fired power and gas over time, which will provide much needed cost-relief on bills.

We're also seeing this on rooftops across the country. Rooftop solar provided 12.8 per cent of Australia's electricity in the first half of 2025, with 26.8 gigawatts installed across 4.2 million homes and small businesses by June. By the end of 2025, rooftop solar had grown to 28.3 gigawatts and contributed 14.2 per cent of electricity supplied to the grid across the year. That is a powerful national asset, built suburb by suburb, roof by roof and household by household.

As a Queenslander myself, I am pleased to report that in Queensland we are leading that work. Queensland added the most rooftop solar capacity in the first half of 2025, with 326 megawatts installed in just six months. When you walk around my community in Griffith, it's hard to find houses without rooftop solar. By the end of 2025, Queensland remained the state with the most rooftop solar installations, at 1.16 million systems. Energy Queensland also reports that around 48 per cent of detached homes in Queensland now have solar, one of the highest rates around the country. Queenslanders have understood for years that rooftop solar is one of the most practical ways to cut household costs, with 44 per cent of households in my electorate now fitted with solar panels.

We've also added batteries into that calculation, which means lower bills, greater resilience and a cleaner energy system overall. That's what our plan delivers—more rooftop solar, more batteries and more cheaper renewable energy in the system. It means lower bills over time, lower emissions, a fairer energy market and a grid built for the future.

See this speech in context