Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. I refer to the recent statement from Alinta energy chief Jeff Dimery that retail energy prices will rise a minimum of 35 per cent. Given the fact of rising power prices facing Australian families, when will the government apologise for telling families that this government would cut power bills by $275 for every family?

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

I thank the honourable member for the question. The opposition knows, but doesn't like to acknowledge, that the Powering Australia Plan that we took to the Australian people and received a mandate for, outlines very clearly in the documents—and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition knows it because she has attempted to table it—a plan to roll out our renewable energy investments, our transmission, over the coming years to 2030. It models the impact of those prices for 2025 and beyond—not 2022, not 2023, but 2025 and beyond. That is the fact. Never did the then opposition and now government say, 'We will come into office and we will be able to fix 10 years of delay and denial overnight.'

These guys are like the rock band that trashes the hotel room and then complains that the cleaners don't have it spick and span before breakfast. These guys trashed the energy market for 10 years and are now complaining that we're not cleaning up the mess quick enough. We're the cleaners who have come in when you've trashed the hotel room—we're cleaning up the mess and you're complaining that we're not doing it fast enough. The Australian people have a view about your record and they'll have a view about ours as well.