Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Albanese Labor government investing in cleaner and cheaper energy, and why is this important? How does this contrast to the other energy policies?

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 Higgins for her question and for her climate leadership in this building, which should be acknowledged. The Albanese government's investing in cheaper and cleaner energy through the Climate Change Act; through the capacity investment mechanism, which those opposite promised and could never deliver; through Rewiring the Nation; and, importantly, through investing in the renewable energy supply chain through the National Reconstruction Fund.

I want to congratulate the industry minister on his announcement today. They have a very strong board for the National Reconstruction Fund, led by Martijn Wilder, an expert in renewable energy. It's a board that will play a very important role in Australia's renewable energy transformation. I am pleased to report to the member for Higgins and the House that the latest figures show that AEMO connection approvals for the last financial year are up substantially for renewable energy to six gigawatts—up two full gigawatts in 12 months—and seven gigawatts in total. So that's a vast majority of new energy being renewable energy and a big increase in AEMO connection approvals over the last financial year.

I'm asked by the honourable member about other policies. And there is a bit to talk about here, too, in relation to the honourable member's question. We saw on the front page of the Australian today a big announcement from the opposition, 'Coalition set to go nuclear on energy'. And we read that nuclear energy is going to be a 'centrepiece' of the coalition's 2025 energy policy. We look forward to this centrepiece. We look forward to the costings and to the locations of the nuclear power stations when the honourable shadow minister releases them. But I have to say that I've been a bit confused about why a party claiming to be economically rational would propose the most expensive form of energy as a way to reduce prices. They say they want to reduce prices.

And there's been another update. I've got to tell the House. I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts on the weekend, Sundays with Stoker. You can't think of a Sunday without Sunday with Stoker.The honourable member for Fairfax was on, and he said, 'If you look at Canada, even today, between 50 and 60 per cent of their grid is nuclear; they pay half the energy prices of Australia.' And I had to pause and rewind and listen again because I thought—actually, I know—that 50 to 60 per cent of Canada's power comes from renewable hydro energy. Less than 15 per cent comes from nuclear. As Electricity Canada said, 'Canada's access to renewable natural resources allows for some of the lowest residential electricity prices in the world,' I table the honourable member for Fairfax's transcript, and I table the report from Electricity Canada showing their renewable prices are some of the cheapest prices in the world.

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

The member for Hume will cease interjecting. The member for Fairfax will not use props during question time.