Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Does the minister agree that the Albanese government has broken its promise to reduce household energy bills by $275 by 2025?

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. There's no doubt that energy prices have been under pressure in recent years. There's no doubt at all; we've been very clear about that. The Australian people know that. Energy prices in Australia are slightly below the OECD average, but that doesn't mean that that hasn't put huge pressure on Australian families and businesses as energy prices have gone up. That is a fact. There are two questions: how did we get here, and what are going to do about it? The fact of the matter is that, when there was a global energy crisis, Australia entered that crisis ill prepared—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

There's just a wall of noise happening at the moment. I'm going to ask that the minister be heard in silence, just as the member for Nicholls was. This is a repeat performance, and it's not going to continue today.

Manager of Opposition Business, please don't interject when I'm addressing the House.

The Leader of the Opposition as well.

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

Give her a pass. In defence of the Leader of the Opposition, she was complimenting me on my tie. I'm prepared to take the interjection.

We entered the global energy crisis ill prepared because, under the previous government, four gigawatts of dispatchable power had left the grid and one gigawatt had come on.

Opposition members interjecting—

I hear moans from those opposite. As you know, Mr Speaker, I'm always trying to find a bipartisan note at the dispatch box, so I'll quote Senator Canavan, who recently said:

The other thing I often hear from government senators and members of the other place is that the former government failed because four gigawatts—

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

Order! The minister will pause. The member for Gippsland.

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

The point of order is on relevance. The question was very tight. The minister is being as loose as a goose. If he can't answer the question he should just sit down.

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

The issue with these questions is that you're asking an opinion—does he agree with his commitments to reduce? He's arguing because of the question he's been asked.

Yes, because of the way the question is framed. If you're asking whether he thinks he's broken something, or whether he agrees about the broken promise to reduce the cost, he's arguing that perhaps that's not the case and he doesn't agree with that, right? It's going to be the same answer that he gives to the same question that he's getting over and over again on this topic. The minister should make sure he's being directly relevant. He can't start quoting random people—elected representatives, other members. He needs to make whoever he's quoting 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, for one, Mr Speaker, would never call Senator Canavan random. Senator Canavan said:

The other thing I often hear from government senators and members of the other place is that the former government failed because four gigawatts of baseload power came out of the system over that decade or so and only one gigawatt was installed to replace it. That is true. That is a fair criticism of energy policy over the past 10 or so years.

You won't often hear me approvingly quoting Senator Canavan, but he's spot-on there.

Then the second question is: what do you do about it? Well, we on this side of the House think that you introduce more of the cheapest, fastest-to-deploy form of energy. Those opposite think the answer is more of the most expensive, slowest form of energy. On that side of the House we saw four gigawatts of dispatchable power leave the grid and one gigawatt come on. In our not yet four years in office, we've seen two gigawatts leave and 7.7 gigawatts come on. That's more supply. More supply means lower prices. Less supply means upward pressure on prices, and that's what the Liberals and Nationals left Australia with, particularly their former energy minister the member for Hume, who promised that he would 'slash $183 to just over $400 per annum from household bills' in a speech on 30 August 2018. By the time he left office, were bills down $400 a year? No. They were up $45 with Ausgrid, $116 with Endeavour and $135 with Essential. The member for Hume— (Time expired)