Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Stronger Families and Stronger Communities) Share this | Hansard source

What Australians are witnessing is a part-time energy minister who spends more time chasing global applause than getting power bills down for hardworking Australians at home. How can the energy minister, who now has two jobs, face the Australian people? Australians expect his first duty to be to Australian households and businesses, not to the conference circuit. Under Labor, taxes are climbing, spending is soaring and debt is spiralling out of control. The minister has boasted that he walked away from the failed negotiations for COP31 with, in his words, 'all the power'. We ask ourselves, 'All the power over who and over what?' He will be the President of Negotiations at next year's COP31 climate summit. How will that help hardworking Australians? How will that help them get their energy bills down? Australians are entitled to ask a simple question: how much of their money was spent just so the energy minister could grab all of the power for himself? A figure of $8 million has been thrown around, but I'm sure that, as we find out more in this place, there will be hidden charges and costs that come with that.

This theatre is paid for by you, the hardworking taxpayer. Australians do not want another global summit or another slogan. They want the lights to stay on and their bills to come down. They want an energy minister who spends less time on the tarmac and more time fixing our energy grid. They want someone who is focused on affordable, reliable power here in Australia instead of chasing claps in conference halls overseas. It's time to end the climate theatre and to get back to honest, practical energy policy that puts Australian households and jobs ahead of our minister's frequent flyer status. Australians are tired of being lectured on emissions by global elites who will happily bulldoze a rainforest for a more convenient access road to a climate summit. These conferences burn more carbon than they save, yet everyday Australians are turning off their heaters or their air conditioners and tightening their belts at the grocery store just so they can balance their household budget.

Emissions are rising globally, not falling, despite all the grand announcements, the billions and trillions of dollars that are being spent and all of the glossy communiques. Power bills are up by around 40 per cent, and it is hardworking families and businesses who are paying roughly $1,300 more than they were promised. Let's remember that this government went to the election promising Australians a $275 reduction in their power bills. Labor's promise of that $275 reduction is now just a cruel joke to the Australian people. The only thing that has gone down under this government is trust. Emissions remain at about 28 per cent below 2005, exactly where they were when Labor took office. So Australians are getting higher bills without any extra progress in relation to emissions. Only the coalition has a plan that maps a practical path to affordable power and lower emissions—not Labor's recipe for soaring prices and targets that cannot be met. Our focus is on results for Australians, not targets that Australians can't meet.

Our energy minister has gone out there and has committed to taking our No. 2 and our No. 3 exports completely off the table. Coal and gas are worth about $180 billion to the Australian economy. Our energy minister has gone over and signed us up to the Belem declaration, which is a declaration to phase out the use of fossil fuels. How is this going to help the Australian people and our economy? Our own minister is overseas, signing us up and impoverishing our nation just so that he can get that global applause on the world stage.