Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

The theme of some of the questions that were put today seemed to focus quite clearly on a total lack of understanding of the difference in the roles and responsibilities between state and federal governments. It is alarming that we have an entire chamber full of senators and there's such a high-level lack of understanding. But that's what we've seen. Particularly we've seen our coalition comrades over there misunderstanding who's responsible for various sporting decisions with the Commonwealth Games. We've also seen them focus on Victoria but not understand the domestic gas moves of the Victorian government. We know that our comrades over here, the Greens, have also got a very strong blind spot in determining the difference between state and federal governments, particularly when it comes to the issue of rental policy.

Let's just be quite clear. When we're talking about the Victorian government's decision about no further gas connections in new builds, the key clue as to who's responsible here is absolutely in the title: the Victorian government. Regarding some of the hoo-ha that's been going on and the overinflated statements from colleagues across the chamber, this is a Victorian government decision. This is not a federal government decision. So this idea that it will ripple across the country is not true. The federal approach is not to impose any sort of mandate like this at all. Our approach is to provide families with more choices, to provide more options and to provide the support to take up those options and make a transition. Our approach is to provide the opportunity to access energy upgrades and energy efficiencies that address cost-of-living pressures and are about choice. As people out there are feeling the pinch and finding life difficult, our approach is about moving to a more energy-efficient future that relies on solar and wind, when we know those resources will be much, much cheaper into the future.

The situation we have ourselves in at the moment, with significant energy prices, has been debated in this chamber ad nauseum over the last year or so, and the key things that are driving it do not include Dan Andrews. What we are doing as the federal government is providing options. Some of those options that were put through in the budget this year include $1.3 billion in financing for household energy upgrades. Part of that that I'm particularly excited about is the fact that $300 million is for social housing energy upgrades, something that we have not seen before. It has never been an option for people in social housing to avail themselves of these kinds of services, these kinds of programs. It's always been about homeowners. So I'm delighted to see that come forward, because it will make a difference for people who are genuinely doing it tough on the ground.

Then we also have $310 million to help small and medium-sized businesses with tax deductions, to get them on board for changing some of the ways they use energy, for looking at some upgrades that will make a significant difference to their bills. These are the kinds of things that we are doing. What the Victorian government is doing is up to Victoria. What we are doing is building a structured policy framework to promote investment, to build towards a cheaper, more secure energy future. That is what we will continue to do to make things cheaper, more accessible and more sustainable into the future for households.