Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Australians deserve honesty and transparency from their government about the true cost of its reckless energy plan, and they are not getting it. The latest red flag is in the Australian Energy Council's report just released on 17 November, which reveals how concerned the energy sector is with Labor's faltering energy transition. The reports says:

AEC members have become increasingly concerned about the rising pressures on affordability and feel there needs to be a more honest and transparent public narrative about the cost of the transition.

Instead of having an honest dialogue with Australians, now part-time energy minister Chris Bowen is keeping them in the dark while driving up their power bills and risking network security and reliability. It's time for Labor to stop the insults and spin and answer one simple question: when will power prices come down under Labor like they promised?

The energy sector attitudes revealed in the Australian Energy Council report are damning. The report notes:

Most CEOs expect energy prices to rise in the coming years …

This is due to sustained upward pressure. These CEOs are sounding the alarm on Minister Bowen's misguided plan, with one stating:

Network cost is only going to go up and go up by increasing levels. And the Australian consumer is not even really wise to that yet because they haven't seen the worst of it.

Just think about that. Energy sector leaders themselves are saying that network costs are going up, going up and going up, and who are the last people in the country to know about that? It's energy consumers—families and businesses. Australian households, businesses and industry deserve a policy that provides affordable energy and seeks to deliver responsible emissions reductions. Labor has failed on both measures while hiding the true cost of its policy from the public. Families are struggling to make ends meet, small businesses are being forced to close their doors, regional Australians are paying the price for poor planning and industry is being pushed offshore.

For Australian households, power bills are up by almost 40 per cent. Where Labor promised a $275 cut to power bills, Australians today are paying around $1,300 more. More than 200,000 families—think about that—across Australia are now on financial hardship plans with their electricity providers. That's an increase of 50 per cent since mid-2022. The Australian Energy Regulator has reported that both the number of customers in debt and the size of the average debt have increased in the last 12 months. Energy leaders have raised concerns over the unintended consequences of leaving vulnerable people behind. One energy leader said:

So bottom line is, we're going to make a large segment of the population more vulnerable again with electricity.

For small business, the story's the same. For small businesses, electricity bills have increased by as much as 80 per cent. COSBOA, the peak industry association for small businesses, reports that one in three small businesses are struggling to pay their electricity and gas bills. It's no surprise that, under the Albanese government, we have witnessed the insolvency of almost 40,000 businesses. Under Labor, Australian industry is being hollowed out. In fact, 1,911 manufacturers have closed their doors since the Albanese government came to power. As one contributor to the AEC report observed:

Australian industry will not survive without access to affordable energy.

For these Australians, prices are soaring, while Australia's emissions are flatlining. Despite $75 billion in extra climate spending—the equivalent of an extra $7,000 per household—national emissions are virtually unchanged under Labor. Recent figures show that, for all this economic pain, emissions have barely moved, falling just 0.7 per cent. Think about that—emissions have fallen just 0.7 per cent under Labor.

This is a reckless government setting targets it cannot meet at a cost Australians can't afford. The coalition's plan is to deliver affordable power and responsible emissions reductions. It's a practical pathway to affordable power and lower emissions. It's not Labor's recipe of soaring prices and targets that cannot be met.