House debates

Monday, 20 March 2023

Questions without Notice

Energy

3:06 pm

Photo of James StevensJames Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under the default market offer, energy prices are to rise by $485 on an average bill in South Australia. Why did the Prime Minister break his promise that energy prices would fall by $275? Why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. I particularly thank him as a South Australian member, because our intervention last December had an impact right across the national energy market, but it had its biggest impact in the honourable member's home state. The honourable member voted against energy price relief, and I would like him to explain to his constituents that our intervention has seen forward prices in South Australia come down 48 per cent—which is the biggest of any state in the Commonwealth. And, in fact, analysis from my department indicates that energy prices in South Australia, in SAPN, would have been $530 higher if it wasn't for the government's intervention.

So that's what the honourable member opposite voted for. A difference of $530 is what the honourable member opposite voted for. As the Prime Minister indicated earlier, this is the default market offer, and the reason honourable members can debate this is that it's public. An essential starting point for this debate at question time is that it's public for all to see, and under this government it always will be public. Under those opposite we're not quite so sure because they have a track record. The member for Hume signed a regulation to keep the last EMO secret until after the election, the most cynical and pathetic act this House has seen in a long time. But it gets worse. I say this about the honourable member for Hume—

Photo of Paul FletcherPaul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order on relevance. The minister was trespassing well outside the terms of his question. If he doesn't have a clear answer on why energy prices aren't falling as they promised, he should sit down.

Photo of Milton DickMilton Dick (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

I'm going to ask the minister to return to the question.

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

The honourable member asked me about the default market offer and energy prices, and I'm more than happy to talk about default market offers, because not only did the former minister keep it secret but it gets worse. After he kept the last EMO secret, he was asked on 29 April last year, on the Deb Knight radio show, about rising power prices, which he knew about at that point but had not disclosed to the Australian people. He said, 'There's fake news in what's being said about this.' He called energy price rises 'fake news'. He kept them secret and then he misled the Australian people and denied that they were happening. That's what the former minister did. The former minister and all his colleagues, especially those from South Australia, voted for energy price rises that would have been $530 higher if it wasn't for this government's intervention.

The government acted on the circumstances in which we found those price rises occurring, making them public, making them transparent and dealing with them. Honourable members opposite prefer to keep them secret, to hide them and to not disclose them to the Australian people and then, when faced with a choice—faced with a vote—to vote for price rises.