Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How are Australians acting to save on energy costs and reduce emissions? What policy proposals would block action?

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

The current member for Sturt is the best member Sturt's had in 50 years. I'm very glad to get a question from her and I'm very glad to tell the member for Sturt and the House that there is a milestone today, because, as of today, 40,004 Australian households have installed a cheaper home battery. And I'm happy to tell the House that South Australia has led the way.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Electricity prices have gone up 13 per cent!

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

The member for Fairfax interjects. I'm not going to have a bad word said about the member for Fairfax. He's a role model for those behind him. If you come up with a toxically unpopular policy and fail to sell it to the Australian people, you too could be deputy leader of your party!

I digress. Yesterday I told the House the member for Mayo leads the leaderboard in South Australia and Australia, and that remains the case. But the people of Sturt have the second-biggest take-up of cheaper home batteries in South Australia and Australia as well, and the member for Boothby's electorate comes third in South Australia.

It's not just households. It's small businesses as well, like the Salopian Inn in the Mclaren Vale, which I visited a couple of weeks ago—a great South Australian institution, a wonderful restaurant. They've installed a cheaper battery, and they're saving on their bills and their emissions and they are make sure that they are reducing their emissions as well. That is what the Salopian Inn in the Mclaren Vale is doing, and that's what small businesses and community groups around the country are doing. They're embracing the Albanese government's policy.

Now, the member asked me about alternatives, and this is particularly relevant in South Australia because South Australians are taking up this policy. They have record renewable energy and they're taking up this policy with great gusto. It's also where the South Australian Liberal Party—it's one of the Liberal parties which have carried a motion to rescind net zero. They're providing pressure on the Leader of the Opposition. The South Australian conference did that a couple of weeks ago. We've seen similar scenes in Western Australia, where the state leader ruled it out.

This motion calling on the federal parliamentary Liberal Party to abolish net zero was moved by the Barker FEC. That was motion No. 4. Motion No. 5 was calling on the federal parliamentary Liberal Party to publicly recognise excess deaths from late 2021 to 2024 being, the motion said, 'widely accepted to be due to experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations.' This is the modern Liberal Party. A big dose of climate denial, a big dose of antivaxxing and they're ready to take on the challenges of modern Australia. The common theme is that the modern Liberal Party don't like science. They don't like evidence. They don't like facts. They can't deal with the challenges of the modern world, which include climate change. It shows they are just not up for governing a modern Australia.