Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to talk about this government's approach to energy policy and energy prices. They're more than just talking points; they're actually the reality of what we are doing to deliver for Australians. While the Albanese Labor government has taken strong action to provide energy bill relief to Australians, households and businesses, what we've seen from those opposite is opposition every step of the way. They're not talking points; they are the reality.

We've provided three rounds of energy bill relief to homes and small businesses to take the sting out of bills now, while we're doing the long overdue reform work to bring down energy bills for good. This goes to the core of the energy future for this country. We've also acted to cap coal and gas prices, shielding Australians from the worst of the global energy crisis. For those households who are watching now, some of the things that you can do is check that you're on the cheapest energy plan that is available to you. The recent ACCC data shows that some 80 per cent of households could we paying less on a different deal right now. The government's energy.gov.au website and the AER's Energy Made Easy website can help billpayers to find the cheapest plans, and we urge you to go and do that.

In the longer term we are also rolling out critical investments in renewable energy, because the sun and the wind don't send a bill, and we've acted to make the energy market fairer. Our new rules, coming into effect in 2026, will make sure that retailers aren't ripping off customers and are going to driving down energy bills. These changes include banning unfair fees and card surcharges, stopping sneaky price hikes and making sure that hardship customers are receiving the best offer that their retailer can provide.

In contrast, we see that the former coalition government left Australians with a power system overexposed to offshore price shocks, exposed to reliability gaps and overly reliant on ageing and increasingly unreliable coal plants, with no plan for a future that is sustainable for our country. They ignored the experts and refused to take advantage of our abundant sun and wind, leaving households paying the price for a grid that's too reliant on expensive, unreliable and ageing coal. We know that those opposite initially voted against the Energy Bill Relief Fund in 2022 and at the election. To this day they say that the solution to Australian energy bills is the most expensive and slowest possible—nuclear.

Only Labor has a plan for an affordable and reliable energy system that's backed by the experts and backed by the Australian economy. The Liberals' nuclear plan would only deliver four per cent of the capacity needed by 2050. The CSIRO figures show that the cost of power from nuclear reactors is up to eight times more expensive than firmed renewables and that the cost of the single plan could be as high as $16 billion. If you want to talk about lowering energy prices, you certainly don't want to be following those opposite.

We know that GenCost has consistently found that renewables, including the cost of transmission and storage, are the cheapest form of new energy generation. This is an important transition in our national interest. Whether it's looking at the International Energy Agency, merchant banks, Baringa, a comprehensive study by Danish academics into the economics of Denmark's energy needs, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies's work or extensive research published in the respected energy journal Joulethe most recent research by Griffith University's Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research suggests that the cost of generating electricity would be as much as 50 per cent higher today if Australia had relied solely on coal and gas instead of pursuing renewables. So it's hardly for those opposite to come here and talk about the price of energy bills for everyday Australians when all they're worried about is themselves.

I would also say that Treasury modelling finds that the wholesale electricity prices will be much lower under an orderly transition, compared to the disorderly transition that our political opponents want. It's unclear where it's disorderly or where it's actually non-existent at the moment, given the discussions over the weekend from those opposite. However, under the orderly scenarios, long-term prices are forecast to be 10 per cent lower than the 10-year historical average, in line with the Australian Energy Market Commission's 10-year forecast and the long-term cost of firmed renewables. Australians know who is looking after their energy prices, and it is on this side of the chamber that that is the case.