Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. The minister has had several opportunities in question time this week to explain when Australian families can expect the $275 reduction in their power bills promised by the Prime Minister. Will the minister finally admit the Prime Minister wasn't telling the truth and not a single Australian family has seen the $275 reduction? Minister, why can't anyone in the Labor Party accept responsibility and just say 'sorry' to the Australian people, who are struggling under Labor's cost-of-living crisis?

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

I thank the honourable gentleman for his question. I take responsibility for the energy system in Australia. I take responsibility, as the minister, for progress. I take responsibility for dealing with the headwinds and the setbacks. That's what a minister does. A minister takes responsibility and deals with it—doesn't hide. Electricity rises before an election, for example. That's an option. That is an option available to a minister. That's not an option that I've chosen to take. I take responsibility for the progress. I take responsibility for dealing with the setbacks. I take responsibility for the more than a thousand batteries that have been installed in the honourable member's electorate, the 1,139, that have been installed in the member's electorate since 1 July. I note that, in Victoria, the wholesale price of energy in May 2022 was $233 a megawatt hour, and today it is $37 a megawatt hour. I do take responsibility for all the above.