Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Peter Doyle, a canefarmer in Dawson, fears he will lose money by harvesting his crop because his average power costs have doubled. Despite installing solar, Peter is still going backwards. Minister, when will the power prices come down?

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 his question. Again, unlike the first few questions, these are questions that are based on serious matters that are worthy of debate in this House. There is a real debate about the various approaches, alternative approaches, to energy prices in this country. This government's approach to help Australian households with things like the Cheaper Home Batteries Program and with the solar sharer policy for three hours of free power in the middle of the day, which we introduced and they opposed, has been very broadly welcomed by Australian energy consumers, who know that renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy. We want to see more Australians benefit from it and to continue with the task of rolling out more renewable energy in this country.

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

The member for Lindsay is now warned.

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

I'm pleased that September was the first month in Australian history that we got more electricity from renewable energy than from coal and October was the first month in Australian history when renewable energy supplied 50 per cent in our main energy grid. This is progress. It takes time to build up. It's taken time to build to 50 per cent and it will take time to build to 80 too, but we'll keep going.

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! I was listening to the minister, and he was answering the question about the timeframe. The member for Dawson can't simply get up and say 'relevance', because he was being directly relevant. If you listened carefully, he was answering about the timeframe. So what's your point of order?

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is on relevance.

Government members interjecting—

No, I'm listening to exactly what you said, sir, but I want to know when—Peter wants to know when it will come down. He's doing it tough, sir.

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

Resume your seat. Member for Dawson, we've been dealing with this for a little while now. The minister is talking about the timeframe—and he did give an exact sentence to the question you were asking about it taking time. I know you want an exact date, but you know that, under the standing orders, I can't deliver that.

Opposition members interjecting—

Order! I'm just going to make sure that the minister is being directly relevant. No more points of order for the rest of the week if you don't like the answer, okay? The minister will be directly relevant to the question he was asked.

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

I do think it's relevant to point out that policies like ours have seen wholesale prices come down 30 per cent in the last quarter.

Opposition members interjecting—

It's a fact. We know there's more work to do to make sure this flows through to retail consumers, and we'll see in the next default market offer, which will be out in March next year. We won't be hiding it, whatever it says. It'll be released, just like the last three have. That hasn't always been the case, but while I'm the minister they'll be released on time and transparently for Australians to see. That's why we've reformed the default market offer to give Australian consumers a better deal, including through Solar Sharer and for the 136,999 households who have now installed a cheaper home battery. These are all practical policies that we'll continue to deliver.