Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. BokaBites is a fish-and-chip shop in my electorate of Fisher. Since June this year, BokaBites has seen its power bills surge by 23 per cent. The owner, Bec, has told me it's simply 'untenable' to run a business under these conditions. Minister, when will power prices come down?

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

Again, I thank the honourable member for his question. Power prices are a very important issue and a real issue of substance, and that's why I and this government have been focused on them—and we'll continue to be every day. That's why we'll continue with modernising our energy system and dealing with 10 years of denial and neglect.

We saw four gigawatts of dispatchable power leave the grid and one gigawatt come on. That's a three-gigawatt gap, and that supply gap has led to increased prices. When you have more supply leave than what comes on, that actually puts upward pressure on prices. We have seen five gigawatts of solar, wind, gas and batteries come on in the last year, which is a record since the national energy market was created. That is because of our policies to encourage more energy, especially more renewable energy, backed by gas peaking and backed by storage.

What I would say to that small business and the many other fine small businesses around Australia is that we know there is so much more to do—

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

Order! The member for Fadden is now warned.

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

and we will keep going with what needs to be done. We won't stop the drive to the most affordable, the cheapest, the most reliable and the lowest emissions form of energy. We know that there are different ways. We know that household power bills could rise by $449 a year if we had greater reliance on gas and coal and if renewables were built more slowly, as the Clean Energy Council has pointed out. We know, as the Treasury has said:

Not pursuing net zero by 2050 risks lower economic growth, reduced investment, missed export and employment opportunities, and higher electricity prices.

The Grattan Institute's energy director, Tony Wood, has said:

There's very little that I can see in what the Liberal Party announced today which would actually bring down power prices.

We know that because their plan is cobbled together to save the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition in a vain attempt—it's not about Australian businesses; it's all about Liberal Party internal politics. We all remain focused on small businesses, medium-sized businesses and households, and giving them access to cheaper, more reliable, lower emissions energy.