Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House notes that:

(1) the Government's energy policies have seen a record number of Australians having an energy debt and facing a 24 per cent increase in their electricity bills in the next six months;

(2) Australians were promised a $275 cut to their power bills by last Christmas and $378 lower by 2030;

(3) Australians, instead, are paying up to $1,300 more;

(4) electricity costs rose by 21.5 per cent in the 12 months to December 2025; and

(5) instead of lower energy costs, as promised by the Government, Australians are now paying more due to the policies of the Government.

For the benefit of the House, I'm going to read parts of the motion out because I think it's very important that this is noted. It says:

(1) the Government's energy policies have seen a record number of Australians having an energy debt and facing a 24 per cent increase in their electricity bills in the next six months …

It notes that:

(2) Australians were promised a $275 cut to their power bills by last Christmas and $378 lower by 2030 …

(3) Australians, instead, are paying up to $1,300 more;

I'm going to repeat that: it's $1,300 more. It says:

(3) electricity costs rose by 21.5 per cent in the 12 months to December 2025; and

(5) instead of lower energy costs, as promised by the Government, Australians are now paying more due to the policies of the Government.

What Chris Bowen, the energy minister, is doing to electricity prices in this country is nothing short of a disgrace. And he won't be up-front with the Australian people, he won't be honest with the Australian people about what is happening. We see it in the parliament day after day after day. He's asked: 'What is happening to retail prices in this country? Are you going to be able to deliver your $275 reduction in power bills as you promised to do?' And he will not even answer the question. He will never, ever answer the question. He goes on about wholesale prices. He says, 'Wholesale prices are doing this.' He goes on about batteries. He says, 'Batteries are doing this.' But he will not address the retail cost of electricity at the household level, where mums and dads are sitting around the kitchen table asking, 'How the hell am I going to pay this bill?' and pensioners are sitting around the kitchen table asking, 'How the hell am I going to pay this power bill?'

I challenge anyone on the Labor side who's going to speak on this motion—and there'll be two of them—to just mention the phrase '$275' and be up-front in saying: 'That was a promise we never were going to keep. We were deceitful to the Australian people. We never should have done it, and we apologise.' That would be doing the right and honourable thing. Yet I'm sure what we'll get is excuse after excuse, and we'll get example after example of everything and anything except addressing the issue about what is happening to retail electricity prices in this nation.

Let me give you a sense of how bad things are. We've just had inflation start to peak again, and, as a result, interest rates have started to go up—the 13th interest rate increase under this government. A lot of it is driven by what is happening to electricity prices. And we're likely to see two more interest rate increases, at least, over the next six months. That's because, when it comes to electricity prices, we're going to see, in the 12 months to 30 June this year, a 24 per cent increase in electricity prices. That's what's being forecast. And we've already had a 40 per cent increase in electricity prices since the Albanese Labor government came to office.

Why? Surely, Minister Bowen, you have to stop, think and say: 'We're heading in the wrong direction. We're not addressing affordability. We're not even addressing emissions reduction. We're failing on all fronts.' At the moment, electricity prices are going up. Emissions are flatlining. Electricity prices are putting pressure on inflation, which is driving interest rates up. We all know that energy is the economy. Yet Minister Bowen doesn't seem to get it. I say this to Minister Bowen and to those opposite: You can't be a part-time minister when electricity prices are going through the roof. You've got to focus 100 per cent on your day job. So you shouldn't be running around the world racking up telephone bills which are eye watering—over $60,000. Meanwhile, Australians are facing a $1,200 to $1,300 increase in their electricity bills. That's why this motion is so important, and it's why Minister Bowen should listen to it.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the motion have a seconder?

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Kara Cook (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I talk with Bonner families at mobile offices, at community events, at schools and while doorknocking, the issue raised with me as the most pressing is the cost of living. We know that electricity prices are just one expense families face when trying to make ends meet. That is why the Albanese Labor government is helping families with real, practical cost-of-living relief. This includes electricity prices. Through the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, Bonner families are taking advantage of solar to reduce their electricity bills; 1,609 batteries have been installed throughout Bonner—and counting. The program is such a success that, since July 2025, Australians have installed more than 200,000 Cheaper Home Batteries. For Bonner families and small businesses, this has brought down the cost of installing a solar connected battery by 30 per cent. This is practical, affordable, clean energy being generated in our community right now. By 2030, it is expected that the program will support more than two million Australians to install a battery, thanks to the boost in funding of $7.2 billion. This will make it possible for more Australians to take advantage of the solar they already have. It could save families $1,000 each and every year. Locals have been telling me they wouldn't have installed a battery but for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program making it affordable for them.

Just over the weekend, I was chatting with a local family in Cannon Hill, who told me that they're installing both solar and battery this week. They said our incentives just made sense. They would not have installed the battery if it wasn't for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. Now with over four million solar installations, Australia has more rooftop solar capacity than the entire fleet of remaining coal fired power stations across the country. There are now more Australian households with solar than swimming pools. This means that the energy market, particularly in the sunshine state of Queensland, often has more electricity in the middle of the day than we currently use. This is where the solar sharer scheme comes in. It is another piece of the puzzle towards cheaper energy by encouraging consumers to use the power when it's abundant, taking pressure off the grid that will be saving Australians even more. From July, Bonner residents who sign up to the new solar sharer offer through their energy retailer will be able to ensure that they are running appliances, air conditioners, swimming pool cleaners, charging electric vehicles and using their home batteries during the middle of the day for free.

Australians voted for cheaper, cleaner energy and the Albanese Labor government is delivering. Since coming to office, we've cut emissions to 29 per cent below 2005 levels and added over 18 gigawatts of renewable energy, enough to power six million homes and delivered $12.7 billion in clean energy investment in recent years. A record number of renewable energy projects got the green light last year. In March 2025, the Clean Energy Council said:

The more renewables in the system, the less we need to depend on unreliable coal fired power and gas over time, which will provide much needed cost relief on bills.

Renewables are pulling their weight for our national electricity make up and reducing the wholesale price of electricity. Those opposite promised a wholesale energy price of $70 a megawatt an hour when they were in government. What was it when they left office? It was $280 and Australians have been feeling that pain. They have been feeling the pain of a decade of neglect from the coalition. Then those opposite come here today and pretend it wasn't their fault.

The Albanese Labor government is acting. We're preventing retailers from raising prices more than once a year. We're preventing customers from being charged more than the standing offer price if their initial low cost offer changes or expires. We're also banning excessive retailer charges for late payments and for retail contracts, and ensuring that all customers are entitled to a fee-free payment method.

Through programs like the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, solar sharer, Bonner families from Hemmant to Holland Park, Carindale to Chandler can harness the power of the sun and save on their electricity bills. Our government, the Albanese Labor government is continuing to deliver cost of living relief for all Australians today and every day.

As the member for Bonner there was seeking to reassure the chamber that the Minister for Climate Change, Chris Bowen, has it all under control, she only needed to lean on the dispatch box the way he does when she talked about two million Australians having a so-called cheaper home battery, neglecting to mention somehow that the cost of that program has gone from $2.3 billion to more than $7 billion in borrowed money at the same time that the number of Australians in energy debt has risen to some 336,615 households—336,000 Australian households who cannot afford their power bills today.

How did we get here? We got here because the Albanese government promised, no fewer than 97 times, to lower power bills in Australia by $275. Lots of numbers and statistics here tonight from those opposite. Not one mention of $275, because that was the promise that mattered to Australians. But rather than their power bills coming down under this government, we've seen them go up by 24 per cent in the last year alone. That's the real cost that matters to Australians. It's what they get in their bill, not the wholesale cost that Chris Bowen likes to talk about. The fact is that Australians are paying $1,300 a year more for their power bills than the $275 cut they were promised by this government.

And let's not forget the promise came from the Prime Minister himself. When challenged by a journalist the very first time that the Labor Party announced this commitment to the Australian people, Mr Albanese replied: 'I don't think, I know. I know because we've done the modelling.' Well, that modelling has been thoroughly discredited by the fact that the power prices are through the roof. And for all of the talk, for all of the numbers and statistics that we hear from those opposite, we do not hear an apology for a core broken promise, and we do not hear a plan to lower power bills for Australians. That's why some 336,000 Australian households right now can't afford their power bills, let alone stumping up for one of these so-called cheaper home batteries.

There is no relief for those Aussies out there who are renting, who are locked out of the property market because the Albanese government has overseen an absolute explosion in migration at a time that housing construction has been limited in Australia. There is no benefit in a battery program that has blown out from $2.3 billion to more than $7 billion already, and the way that Minister Bowen keeps fiddling with the pieces of the puzzle, as we're told, should actually cause Australians to lose sleep at night because that guarantees more billions of taxpayer dollars shovelled out the door for higher prices for those Australians left to carry the cost. It is unthinkable that we can continue to do the same thing and expect a different result to what we've seen, and yet that's the plan from our energy minister here in Australia.

The problem is that energy is everywhere in our economy. It's not just a household issue, but rather one that impacts our businesses as well, like those small and family-owned businesses—cafes, the corner store and the like. You walk into a cafe that is air-conditioned. That costs money. The lights cost money. The heating elements in the coffee machine cost money. You're paying for that higher power price everywhere you go.

Importantly, manufacturing businesses, who are huge users of energy in Australia, are the ones doing it perhaps hardest of all. The answer from this government is that you might be able to get a cheaper home battery for your small manufacturing business. In my part of the world, where we've got alumina refineries that are some of the biggest energy consumers in Western Australia, no cheaper home battery is going to offset the explosion in power prices that we've seen in recent years.

I note the crowing from those opposite about the reduction in emissions, completely neglecting the fact that emissions were down 26 per cent from 2005 levels by the time we left office in 2022. So for all of the billions of dollars that have been shovelled out the door in the last couple of years, we've seen emissions tick down, and that exposes the absolute hypocrisy of this government's energy program.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Renewables are the cheapest form of power, and we simply will not bring down electricity prices without transitioning to a renewable energy future. Only a Labor government will achieve this, and it is already underway. Since we came to government we have approved 123 renewable energy projects, enough to power more than five million households, and potentially reducing emissions by more than 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. That's the same as taking nine million cars off the road. For the first time, renewables supplied more electricity across Australia than coal-fired power generation, and the wholesale electricity price in the national electricity market has fallen by 14 per cent. This is not an accident. It is the result of a government with a defined purpose and a plan to achieve it.

One of the many programs supporting communities to lower emissions and power bills is the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. My community in the Illawarra has proven that we want to drive this energy transition and has enthusiastically embraced this program. As of 18 January, my electorate of Cunningham now has 1,568 new small-scale batteries, which will provide 36,595 kilowatt-hours of capacity. I wanted to share some stories from local people about the difference that it's making to their lives and to their back pockets.

Karen from Corrimal says: 'I took advantage of the Labor government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program and added a battery to our existing solar panels. I'm enjoying not paying for electricity and having my bill in credit as a result of feeding back into the grid.' However, for Karen, the best thing was when the Australian Energy Market Operator announced that the renewables share in the last quarter rose above 50 per cent. She said, 'I was proud to contribute to that, albeit in a very small way.'

Louis from the George Cross Falcons Community Centre in Cringila, said: 'Two years ago our association, under a federal program, received funding for the installation of solar panels. Last October, we ordered a 40 kilowatt battery subsidised by the Labor government. The first bill for 92 days was $117, noting that there were a few weeks of rain during the billing period.' The club applauds this government for the subsidised battery, otherwise their association would not have been able to afford it.

Luke, a vet from Fairy Meadow, said: 'I started a new veterinary hospital in April 2025 in Fairy Meadow and had solar panels installed before we opened. This meant our bills were $350 per month instead of being two to three times more than that. We had a large battery installed under the scheme in September, and now our bills are less than $100 per month. Even more important for us is that we could still operate normally when we had two blackouts, as the battery took over. Normally a blackout means it's hard to see our patients, which costs the business but, more importantly, makes it hard to treat our patients when they need it.' Luke said the battery has been so successful that he's gotten one at home now as well.

Brendan from Figtree said: 'In September I installed a 49 kilowatt battery to complement our existing large solar system, and we joined a VPP. Both through the rebate and the market competition it has created, I saved nearly $18,000 on the installation. Our last quarterly bill before the battery was $900 and our first with the battery was a $600 refund.' That saved them $1,500 over the quarter. He said, 'Having the battery has future proofed our home and kept the lights on during several recent blackouts.'

Then there's David from Woonona, who said: 'I took advantage of the Albanese government's Cheaper Home Batteries scheme in July and I haven't paid for electricity since. I'm happy to be feeding electricity back to the grid using a VPP and am grateful for the Minns government's support as well. Thanks to both policies, I can make a difference to the environment.'

Then we have Thomas from Berkeley, who said: 'I used the program to install solar and batteries for the first time and was really impressed with both how much money I have saved and how much excess energy I have contributed to my local VPP. With the tools they give you it's possible to see not only how much money you're saving but also how much carbon you are not contributing to the environment. I have saved money and reduced my impact on the environment, all thanks to the Albanese government.'

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made in order of the day for the next sitting.