Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal, under standing order 75, from Senator Dean Smith, which has been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

Rising and volatile energy prices continue to cripple Australian families and small businesses under Labor, with household power bills skyrocketing by more than 40% during the first term of the Albanese Government, and the National Electricity Market recording a 139% surge in the average spot price between May and June 2025.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

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

Energy insecurity means economic insecurity for every Australian. Affordable, reliable energy underpins our national economy and supports productivity. Manufacturing, industry, agriculture and small business sit next to emerging technologies like cyber and artificial intelligence in needing a dependable, accessible national electricity grid. However, under this Labor government, Australians are experiencing energy price increases which go to the core of driving energy insecurity.

Today's CPI data shows that, under Labor, electricity prices have risen by more than 32 per cent, exclusive of the rebates. Labor promised Australians savings of $275 on annual electricity bills, but we know that prices have soared up to $1,300 more than Labor promised. Our charities are at the coalface of meeting the energy insecurity challenges of Australian families. In its June cost-of-living index, Anglicare Australia revealed:

For the majority of the households we modelled, energy bills are simply unaffordable.

Minister Bowen and Labor have overseen back-to-back hits to household budgets. In June 2025, the national electricity market, the NEM, recorded a staggering month-on-month surge in the average spot price of 139 per cent, increasing from May's $96.28 per megawatt hour to June's average of $232 per megawatt hour. The 2025 year-to-date average now sits 10.6 per cent higher than the same period in 2024. Australian families and Australian businesses, large and small, are struggling under the energy insecurity being created by this Labor government. And under the Australian Energy Regulator's default market offer for 2025-26, which came into force this month on 1 July, residential electricity bills have increased by up to 9.7 per cent, and small-business electricity bills have increased by up to 8.5 per cent. Canstar predicts that this will increase the average power bill by approximately $228.

The Labor government just cannot be believed when it comes to the cost of their energy and emissions reduction policies. They went to the 2022 election with three promises: a $275 cut to bills by 2025, 82 per cent renewables by 2030 and a 43 per cent emissions reduction target. They have failed or are failing on all three. Australians deserve to have clear visibility of the electricity grid transition costs so they can engage in this critical debate about our nation's energy future. It is deeply concerning that the Centre for Public Integrity recently revealed the Albanese Labor government to be one of the least transparent in the modern era. This secrecy also extends and characterises the secrecy they apply to energy policies. Yesterday, the CSIRO handed down its final GenCost report but refused to reveal its modelling on Labor's renewables integration costs.

Minister Bowen is recklessly chasing renewables at any cost—a cost that is being borne by Australian families and Australian businesses, large and small, a cost that risks imperilling the competitiveness of our country, a cost that risks imperilling manufacturing businesses and a cost that risks imperilling heavy industry. Renewable infrastructure construction costs have soared, and it's time for the government to be honest about the cost of its emissions reduction plan. (Time expired)

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a time-honoured practice from this opposition to lament problems that we have but oppose the solutions. Good energy policy in this country requires vision, evidence based policies and measures, consistency and predictability. It needs us to be able to plan as a nation how we're going to generate the energy we need, and it needs that to permit investment in the relevant infrastructure and delivery mechanisms.

The government's policy is about delivering reliable, affordable and sustainable energy to the Australian people. Senator Smith mentioned two of those things but not the third, which was sustainability, and that sits at the heart—

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

Give me 10 minutes, and I'll get there.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I always enjoy listening to you, Senator Smith, so I would have. There was an absence of sustainability in that discussion, and there is an absence of sustainability in the Liberals' energy vision. That was perhaps best illustrated in this chamber but a few days ago, when, voting on a net zero motion, you had two members of the coalition on this side of the chamber, you had two members of the coalition on that side of the chamber, and the rest were missing in action. They wouldn't nail their colours to the mast on one of the most important issues facing Australia.

That takes me to consistency and the importance of consistency, because, when those opposite were last in government, they had more than 20 different policies across a decade. No-one knew the direction, no-one could plan and no-one could invest. And that net zero vote simply shows that those opposite haven't learned or done the work necessary to go in and have the policies to solve this issue.

Senator Smith referred to the CSIRO report, and what that said, just this week, was that renewables remain the cheapest form of energy—not coal, not gas, not nuclear. This government is a government that believes in harnessing renewables as part of Australia's energy future to drive down prices long term. We support that because it's a model that's good for the environment and good for the economy.

A decade of inaction has compromised our energy grid. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis explains:

The existing coal fleet—

in Australia—

… is ageing, and nearing the age when Australian coal power plants have typically retired …

The reliability of coal-fired power stations typically declines as they age, due to the progressive degradation of critical plant components. Age-related wear and tear can increase the frequency of technical issues and outages as the plants need to reduce output or temporarily shut down … to undertake necessary repairs.

That drives up prices and it reduces reliability. The volatility of the power prices we're seeing at the moment is a result of a failure to invest in our system long term.

And there's a study I want to discuss today, which was published just recently, in June this year, from the Griffith University's business school, which examined the counterfactual that is still proposed by senators opposite, and that is: what would happen if we cancelled renewables and reverted to coal and natural gas? What that study found was that the result would be an increase in energy prices of between 30 per cent and 50 per cent—that's looking at it from 2025, if we went with coal and gas rather than renewables and batteries, firmed by gas. On a unit-cost basis, coal- and gas-fired generation were unambiguously the lowest cost technologies in the mid-2000s, setting aside the cost of CO2 emissions. But by 2025 the price of both coal and natural gas had increased at multiples above general rates of inflation. That study found that our 2025 counterfactual scenarios, which deploy new coal-fired and gas-fired generation with no renewables, proved to be surprisingly expensive—more expensive than the model that's been proposed by the government.

The driver of higher prices in energy in Australia is not renewable energy; it's the failure to invest long term, the failure to plan properly. And that's one of the problems when you don't have consistency and vision in energy policy, because the consequences are felt much later. We're facing the consequences now of 10 years of poor energy policy and energy indecision. What Australia needs is a government that will back in successful strategies to fix and modernise our energy market, provide security to operators and encourage investment, and help the country move on from a decade of policy failure in this area. And, luckily for our country, that's exactly what they've got in the Albanese Labor government.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australian lives are getting more expensive every day because of net zero rorts. Power bills keep going up and the national debt keeps going up, because Australian taxpayers, renters, pensioners, small businesses and anyone who turns on a light are paying for rorts.

I use this opportunity to detail just one of these rorts—it's not illegal, yet it's completely unethical—occurring under the Capacity Investment Scheme. The Capacity Investment Scheme is a wind and solar slush fund that Minister Chris Bowen personally administers. I'm going to quote energy expert Aidan Morrison extensively, and we thank him for all of his contributions to the energy debate in this country. He said:

This is the story of how a fund chaired by former Labor PM Julia Gillard acquired a wind farm project just six days before Labor Energy Minister Chris Bowen underwrote its future revenues with taxpayer money.

Today we've learned Julia's fund is trying to flip it. For a profit.

HMC Capital's 'Energy Transition Fund' rushed to acquire the Neoen Victoria portfolio. They hadn't even raised any money in their fund. They closed with almost a billion dollars worth of borrowed money and IOU's.

Less than a week later, Chris Bowen announced Kentbruck Wind Farm to be successful in the first round of the Capacity Investment Scheme. My rough calculations suggest they will receive something like a billion dollars from taxpayers (and maybe much more) over 15 years.

Sweet deal. A billion dollars of fancy financial monopoly money one week. A billion dollars of promised taxpayer dollars the next.

…   …   …

Unlike the UK who publish a 'going rate' for technology subsidies, our renewables—

unreliables—

are subsidised through a secret tender process—

under the Capacity Investment Scheme. He went on to say:

Every project gets to ask for whatever revenue they want to proceed. @AEMO_Energy—

that's the Australian Energy Market Operator—

facilitates a secret beauty pageant, where they award points for things like indigenous participation or community engagement, alongside financial value.

And Chris Bowen makes the final call.

The bids remain secret. There's no cap to the pay-outs. Since AEMO is a private company, there is no scope for an FOI—

freedom of information—

request, and AEMO aren't not subject to parliamentary oversight through Senate Estimates.

So—

based on the public information—

no-one can ever prove an allegation that Bowen has bestowed special favour on a friend's project if that was what he did. But equally, he can never prove that he selected strictly according to merit. We are just expected to trust the black-box of Bowen's subsidies.

Mr Morrison continues in a reply to his post:

Originally it always appeared to me that @DCCEEW—

the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water—

would administer the scheme.

But Bowen is determined they don't administer it. In fact, going so far as to change the National Electricity Law to make it possible for AEMO Services to do it, and making an interim request to AEMO.

…   …   …

He could have just used the department, but that would make the process more transparent and accountable to parliament. He's basically cutting corners to cut out any chance of oversight.

In Mr Morrison's original post, he says:

Every dollar of profit in this industry—

the so-called solar and wind industry—

is really a cheque signed by a politician, with Chris Bowen signing all the biggest cheques, worth untold billions, in the next three years.

It's all legal. It's all official. And it's absolutely obscene.

The most concerning part of the Capacity Investment Scheme is that we have no idea how big it is. Right now, tens of billions of dollars may be getting handed out in lock-in contracts lasting for the next 15 years. Labor created the Capacity Investment Scheme in 2023. It's since proven extremely popular with solar and wind developers. I wonder why. Now, Minister Bowen wants to expand the program 15 per cent to 40 gigawatts. How many billions of dollars will all this cost taxpayers? We will likely never know. How much are overseas foreign companies ripping out of Australian taxpayers' pockets under the Capacity Investment Scheme? We will never know. With this level of secrecy, rorts are almost guaranteed—and for what?

The biased, discredited CSIRO GenCostreport on the cost of electricity was released just this week. You only have to skim the Centre for Independent Studies' energy publications to understand how, yet even CSIRO had to admit that the lower estimate for coal-fired power is cheaper than wind and solar. Now they admit it, after their fraudulent GenCost report. That's despite a secret model the CSIRO refuses to release to the public and a number of assumptions purpose-designed to make coal look worse than reality—fraud. Fundamentally, Australians have been lied to repeatedly by government agencies. Ditch the economic nonsense from net zero. Ditch the net zero nonsense, in fact. End the corruption. Put Australians first.

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

Today I rise to speak about the challenge confronting every household, every business and every community in Australia: the rising cost of power, which skyrocketed more than 40 per cent during the first term of the Albanese government. Net zero is driving a rapid and uncompromising shift to renewable energy. It's reshaping our economy, our communities and our way of life. It is a shift that demands honesty about who pays, who benefits and who bears the burden. Those opposite must be honest with the Australian people, with farmers, with small-business owners and with families. They must admit that this energy transition is not free, it is not magical and it is not painless. It is sending manufacturing offshore, driving agriculturalists off their land, sending businesses broke and driving families and businesses to the brink. On top of this, it is being funded by the taxpayer, which, make no mistake, means your money. Whether it's through higher inflation and taxes, steeper power bills or lost economic opportunity, the cost is real and the burden is growing.

Inflation is largely being driven by the energy transition. Labor cannot be believed when it comes to the cost of their energy and emissions reduction policies. They went to the 2022 election with three promises: a $275 cut to power bills, which I, like many other Australians, am still waiting for; an 82 per cent renewables target by 2030; and a 43 per cent emissions reduction. So far, we are yet to achieve any of those targets, and it is fair to say that the renewables target won't be reached. Every extra dollar spent on ever-rising energy bills is a dollar less for groceries, for child care and for mortgage repayments. It's not just about households feeling the pinch. Businesses large and small are grappling with unpredictable costs, shrinking margins and mounting pressure to absorb new compliance requirements. Subsidies for solar panels and electric vehicles, while appealing on paper, often benefit wealthier households, leaving working families behind. The good intentions behind the energy transition do not pay the bills; families do, and many of them are already stretched beyond their limits. Those opposite speak of equity and inclusion, but the reality is that families on the minimum wage, those working two jobs just to make ends meet, are not the ones installing rooftop solar or buying Teslas. They are the ones who pay more at the checkout, more on their rent and more on their power bills.

This transition, as it stands, is deepening inequality. Our farmers, the lifeblood of Australia's food security, under the net zero agenda, face strict limits being imposed on their land use and their livestock emissions. That means slashing herd sizes to cut methane, gutting income and driving up beef prices for everyday Australians. Green farming sounds good in a press release, but for the farmer on the ground it can mean tens of thousands of dollars in costs with no guarantee of return. And the bureaucracy! Complex carbon farming schemes, consultants, forms and red tape. We're asking our farmers to be environmental auditors just to stay afloat. It's absurd. Worse still, prime agricultural land, land that feeds us all, is being swallowed up by wind turbines and solar farms. Farmers are losing the very ground they depend on, all to meet a target funded by their own taxes. And when our local producers go under, we will all pay more. The impact on small business is equally stark. Switching from gas to electric, swapping diesel vehicles for electric or installing new compliant equipment all comes with an upfront cost many small operators simply cannot afford.

The subsidies propping up this transition are staggering, and emissions under Labor are actually rising. This is not a call to abandon environmental responsibility. Every Australian wants a sustainable future, clean air, preserved landscapes and a healthy environment for generations to come, but sustainability must be more than environmental. It must also be economic and social, and it must be fair. We need practical solutions, and we need to invest in base-load power, not just intermittent sources. We need to reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses, and we need to ensure that farmers, families and communities are partners in this transition, not casualties of it.

Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always interesting when the coalition talk about energy in this place, particularly now they're in opposition. Maybe if they'd taken the topic more seriously when they were in government, they might not have any reason to complain about cost of energy today. After nearly a decade in government, they had no fewer than 23 energy policies—I think it's still counting—all of which were abandoned, leaving the Albanese government to pick up the pieces of the mess they left behind. In fact, under the coalition government, Australians suffered some of the highest price increases among industrialised economies around the world, and electricity prices increased by four times the OECD average in Australia. It would be nice if they could resolve where they actually sit on energy policy. As I said, there were 23 energy policies and it looks like they are still going. I'm trying to keep track of it. I picked up the Australian today to see if I could work out where they're at. There was an interesting column by the Australian's editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, titled 'Rejecting net zero will condemn Liberals to electoral oblivion'. The column starts:

The Liberal Party faces a moment of truth. Does it still aspire to be a governing party for Australia or is its future as a right-wing echo chamber for conservatives raging against progressive dominance on climate change?

It's a great question. I would recommend the column to anybody who hasn't read it.

By contrast, our government has listened to the experts and we've backed reliable, affordable and clean energy. Those are the three pillars. You can't just do one and you can't do two. You've got to meet all three pillars if you're serious about energy policy in this country. Importantly, we've provided the certainty to get investment flowing, to secure the jobs we need now and into the future. I am proud to say that Australia is producing a record amount of renewable electricity and our emissions now are lower than when our government took office.

While we've been focused on rolling out cleaner and more reliable energy to power our nation, it seems the coalition—at least some of them—remain committed to the most expensive form of energy: nuclear. So what do the experts say on this? We've heard a lot about the GenCost report from the CSIRO and AEMO—the Energy Market Operator. I will quote from the statement accompanying the release of that report:

… renewables remain the lowest-cost new-build electricity generation technology, while nuclear small modular reactors … are the most costly.

This is confirmation that the government's plan for a fairer, cleaner and more reliable energy system is the right plan for Australian households. The report found that, even accounting for the cost of firming and storage, renewable energy continues to be the lowest-cost new-build technology, underscored further by the falling cost of batteries.

We aren't just focused on renewables and storage. We are taking strong action to provide energy bill relief to Australian households and businesses. People complain that they are waiting for their discount on their power bill, but, unfortunately, the coalition has decided to oppose relief at every step of the way. It's quite ironic when you consider how much they've complained about energy prices. They had a chance to do something about it, but they have found a reason to oppose cost-of-living relief again and again. Despite this, we've provided three rounds of energy bill relief to homes and businesses to ease the burden of bills while doing the well-overdue work of reforming our economy to transition to a renewables led economy.

I would also encourage households to check what other resources there are to make sure they are getting the cheapest energy plan. The ACCC has reported that some 80 per cent of households could be paying less if they switched to a better deal. The government is determined to drive competition in the market, and there are some great resources out there. Energy.gov.au and the AER's Energy Made Easy website can help billpayers find the cheapest plan.

Another way we're helping households is through the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. Barely a month in, this program has seen 16,000 households take advantage of it and add storage to their homes as more Australians embrace renewable energy. The government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program will bring down the cost of a typical battery by around 30 per cent and will save households with existing rooftop solar up to $1,100 off their power bill every year.

To finish, I want to go back to the choice we face here, because we are debating Australia's energy future. Again, I think Paul Kelly summed it up nicely for the Liberal Party:

Does it still aspire to be a governing party for Australia or is its future as a right-wing echo chamber for conservatives raging against progressive dominance on climate change?

…   …   …

What do they want? Government-financed new coal-fired power stations, the sure road to electoral oblivion?

I could not agree more.

Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Senator Dean Smith's MPI today because it is indeed a matter of public importance. The most inconvenient truth that the Labor Party will not acknowledge is that affordable and reliable energy has underpinned our country's prosperity for decades, and that is particularly the case in my home state of Victoria. But the reality that's facing households, small businesses and industries today is stark, because under this government Australians are experiencing an energy price crisis. Not only are record numbers of people struggling to pay their energy bills; we're seeing more frequent threats of blackouts in our grid.

As so often is the case with Labor, they seem to ignore those truths. They're quite happy to have the spin, but there is no substance behind the promises they make. Let me remind you of some of those promises. The most obvious one, made prior to the 2022 election—and it was said over 90 times—was that they would reduce energy prices by $275. Well, we are still waiting. There has been no reduction in energy prices. In fact, it's been quite the opposite. Three years on, that cut is nowhere in sight. Instead, over the first term of an Albanese government, household power bills skyrocketed by more than 40 per cent. Power prices are now up $1,300 more than was promised by this government. Now, that's extraordinary. It's eye-watering.

Almost every business that I walked into over the past three years has listed energy bills as their No. 1 cost pressure. It didn't matter whether it was a butcher, or a cafe or a hairdresser that we were visiting, these small businesses were talking about bills and how they had not increased by small amounts but by an extraordinary amount—thousands of dollars.

The only thing that Labor has delivered is back-to-back hits to household budgets. In fact, between May and June this year, just two months after the election, the national electricity market recorded a 139 per cent surge in the average spot price. Let me say it again: a 139 per cent surge in the average spot price in just two months since the election. The 2025 year-to-date average now sits at 10.6 per cent higher than it did in the same period in 2024. Under the Australian Energy Regulator's default market offer for this year, 2025-26, which came into force on 1 July, residential electricity bills have increased by up to 9.7 per cent, and electricity bills for small businesses are up by 8.5 per cent. That's nowhere near the $275 cut that was promised.

Not only did they promise that prices would come down; they also promised there would be 82 per cent renewables by 2030 and that emissions would be reduced by 43 per cent. Once again, Labor's promise was nothing more than hollow. They are very small on delivery. In fact, the government is nowhere near its 82 per cent target, as experts are forecasting. The most optimistic scenario is that it may reach 65 per cent. But at what cost? Even Labor's own longtime adviser Professor Ross Garnaut has claimed the government will miss its target by 'a big margin'. They are his words, not mine.

When it comes to the 43 per cent emissions reduction target, the Climate Change Authority has calculated we'll need a 15-megatonne reduction annually. Instead, emissions are increasing under Labor. In fact, last year they were around six million tonnes higher than they were under the coalition government. Emissions have gone up under Labor. Don't believe what they're telling you. They have gone up. So it's costing you more and you're getting less for what you are paying.

Labor is recklessly chasing a renewables-at-any-cost price at the expense of the grid, at the expense of families, and at the expense of businesses. It's not working to reduce your emissions. It isn't working for households and businesses who are paying those bills. We need to do more. We need to reduce emissions, don't get me wrong. I believe that, fundamentally. But this is a pathway to destruction. It's not a pathway to prosperity.

I want to finish by reading you a text that I got in the chamber from my mother, who is on a set income. She said: 'I need your help, if not this weekend then soon. I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're in Canberra. In the past my electricity bills have been around the $500 mark. I just got one for $1,500. I am panicked. I don't know what to do. They talk about negotiating around a reasonable price'—I think she means "shopping around"—'but I have no idea how to do that. Can you please help me?' When I said, 'Yes, of course, I'll come home and I will help you this weekend,' she said: 'Thanks. That wretched little twerp Bowen. This is paying for his nonsense and lies.'

That's one customer. Heaven help Australians that are suffering under Labor's energy price crisis.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate on the MPI has expired.