Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. I refer to soaring concern amongst Australians on the spiralling cost of living occurring under the government's watch, including surveys today showing more Australians are concerned about having to pay more for everything and rightly believe the government is doing nothing to address these concerns. Why is the government still refusing to act to reduce the cost of living almost six months since they were elected, instead delivering a budget that baked in electricity price rises of 56 per cent and gas price rises of 44 per cent over two years?

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 his question about what the government did in the budget in relation to energy prices and the cost of living. I'm more than happy to answer the question because the budget provided $20 billion of funding to ensure that we rewire this country. After years of indolence by those over there who talked about the Marinus Link for 10 years, in our first six months the Prime Minister and this government made the Marinus Link a reality by working with Tasmania and Victoria to fund it. Talking about a link does not move one watt of electricity around this country; funding a link does, and that's what we did. We also funded our 400 community batteries across Australia, which will help families to store the renewable energy that they generate and to use it at a time and a place convenient to them because batteries store renewable energy, something the Leader of the Opposition has some trouble coming to terms with. The Leader of the Opposition was on the radio this morning, on 2GB, being interviewed by Ray Hadley—where the Leader of the Opposition always goes to get his toughest questions!—and he said, 'You can't store the renewable energy at the moment.' That's what the Leader of the Opposition said. The battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800, but the Leader of the Opposition is still catching up with these facts. He still doesn't understand that just because the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow—nor does the rain always fall, but we manage to store water, we manage to drink water when it's not raining—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bowman? And I ask him to state the point of order.

Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on relevance. I didn't ask for a history lesson. My question related to costs of living.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You did ask a very broad question about the cost of living and the costs of energy and reports today. So, I'll ask the minister to continue. He is being in order.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We don't have to go back too far to be reminded of the former Prime Minister—who also happens to be the former minister for energy—the member for Cook, who said that a big battery was as useful as a big prawn. Nothing has changed over there. The former Prime Minister didn't get it. The current Leader of the Opposition doesn't get it. They don't really get renewable energy. They don't understand that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. They pay lip-service to renewable energy, but they just hate all the policies that actually deliver renewable energy. They hate our Rewiring the Nation policy. They hate our Community Batteries policy. They hate the real policies that actually bring these things on, which will provide cost-of-living relief to Australians, which will get more renewable energy. At the end of the day, you can change the face on the picture but it's just the same old Liberal Party that the Australian people rejected on 22 May.