Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. In the lead-up to the 2022 election, the Prime Minister repeatedly promised a $275 reduction in household energy bills, and I quote:

I don't think, I know. I know because we have done the modelling.

Without mentioning home batteries, will the minister finally admit that the Prime Minister was wrong, the modelling was wrong and Australian families are paying the price every day for this government's abject failure to deliver on its promise?

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

I understand the honourable gentleman doesn't want me to mention the 2,390 households in his electorate that have received the cheaper home battery, but I feel obliged. I feel obliged to speak on their behalf to defend their right to a cheaper home battery that those opposite opposed. Those opposite are talking a lot about spending cuts at the moment. Well, they would've cut the Cheaper Home Batteries Program—that's what Australians would want to know—before even more Australians get a chance to access a cheaper home battery.

The Prime Minister also made the point after the election that we've seen so many Australians reduce their bills permanently after the 2025 election—225,000 Australian households, times 2.5 in terms of numbers of people, who reduced their bills permanently, in many cases to zero. In many cases, they got a rebate. We think that's a good thing. Those opposite aren't too impressed with that. That's the difference between the two sides of the House.

In relation to energy prices, as I said in my previous answer, the Australian people knew in 2025 what progress we'd made, what efforts we'd made and what obstacles we'd had to overcome. They looked at the two sides' policies; they looked at the records, and they asked us to serve a second term in office—one that we were humbled and honoured to receive. The member for Fairfax can take his fair share of the credit for that, to give due credit. As the architect of the opposition's nuclear policy, we're very grateful to him. We're very grateful for the $600 billion nuclear policy which he engineered, which he sold to the Australian people and which the Australian people cast a verdict on.