Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Prime Minister: the government can act on inflation and reduce emissions. In the US, the government passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Over 80 per cent of the measures in that act went towards supporting household electrification and energy efficiencies, which will result in huge cost-of-living savings. Will you implement a similar program to accelerate household electrification and reduce the cost of living for Australians?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Of course there are examples of where electrification can lead to a decrease in the cost of energy production and where that is combined with renewables—particularly where you have renewables and battery storage. But I want to make this clear to the member for Warringah as well: this government won't be mandating what can be used in a household by individual Australians. I want to make that very clear.

So if people want to fire up a barbie or if restaurants want to use gas to produce their products, then that will be fine by us too. We want to be able to facilitate choice. Programs have been done in the past whereby people can get either interest-free loans or some sort of support in order to transform their existing use of energy. That can then be paid back, if you like, over a period of time. That can make sense as well.

We understand that the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States is a major breakthrough, and we also understand that around the world all governments are acting. The difference between the Australian government of 2023 and the Australian government of 2021 and early 2022 is that we are joining with the world, looking at best practice and looking at ways in which we can be part of the global solution to climate change. We know that increased use of renewables will reduce the cost of energy production, whether for households or for businesses, which is why it is tragic that we fell behind.

Business was so far ahead of the Australian government, which is why businesses, including peak organisations, like the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and small business, all backed our plan. Our plan for a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 was opposed only by those opposite.