Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator Hume which was also shown at item No. 15 on today's Order of Business:

Dear President

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

"Australians have a full-time frequent flyer and part-time energy minister delivering a part-time energy grid, prioritising global summits ahead of reducing power prices for Australians."

Yours sincerely

Senator the Hon Jane Hume Senator for Victoria

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.

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

Finally, we've got a more appropriate title for the member for McMahon, Mr Chris Bowen. He'd now officially known as the part-time energy minister. It happens to be a role he is very well prepared for, because he's already had a part-time approach, let's face it. He's delivered a part-time energy grid and full-time power price pain for Australian families and Australian businesses. Australians are paying an awfully high price for Labor's wrong priorities and their broken promises on energy. Let's remember those three promises that Labor took to the 2022 election: 82 per cent renewables in the grid by 2030, 43 per cent emissions reduction from 2005 levels and, of course, the infamous but never spoken of again $275 cut to electricity bills by the end of 2025. Goodness me, we're getting close, aren't we?

Well, the government has failed on all three. Eighty-two per cent of renewables in the grid is well off track. Every credible expert forecasts that, even in the most optimistic scenario, we're now looking at around 65 per cent, and the rollout is only at half the pace that is needed. Industry is crying out for gas more than anything else. After emissions went up under this government, they are now only back at 28 per cent of 2005 levels. That is the same level as when the coalition left office 3½ years ago. Most offensively to Australians, power prices are up 40 per cent. Your bills have increased 40 per cent under this government, and an Australian household is paying on average around $1,300 more on their energy bills in a year than Labor promised. It really is a trifecta of failures under this minister—prices up, reliability down and emissions flat-lined.

You would think with that record that the energy minister would take his job a bit more seriously—but no. Instead, what we've seen and what we learnt last week is that the Australian government has spent $7 million for the privilege of losing a bid to host COP31. That's $7 million gone, and not a single family is better off for it. According to Labor, though, we shouldn't worry, because we've got this fabulous consolation prize. We should all be so proud. Mr Bowen is going to be the president for negotiations for COP. What a title that is! How extraordinary! What an honour! To be fair to my colleagues on the other side of the chamber, I understand why it's viewed as a prize, because it might mean that the member for McMahon has to spend a little less time here answer questions about his failed policy and his failure to deliver the $275 he convinced not only all of Australia of but all his colleagues of as well. The fact is that Australia's energy minister taking on this role will not make energy any cheaper. The only winner out of this is Chris Bowen's CV. While the minister racks up more photos for his Instagram—a selfie with Greta, maybe—Australian households and businesses will be left to deal with more expensive energy bills and an unreliable energy grid.

Since Labor came to power, 1,900 manufacturing businesses have closed their doors, like Qenos plastics, Incitec Pivot Fertilisers and Oceania Glass in my home state of Victoria. Now, of course, we're talking about Tomago Aluminium at risk of closure or headed for a billion-dollar taxpayer funded bailout just to keep the thousand jobs that this vital industry provides. In 2024, COSBOA surveyed small businesses and found that 34 per cent have experienced financial strain paying their energy bills—that's a figure that's higher than it was during the pandemic—and 45 per cent were concerned about their future energy bills. When it comes to Australian families who were holding out for that $275 cut, there are actually 200,000 Australian families now who are on hardship plans with energy providers because of those rising energy costs.

Australians don't need an energy minister with two jobs; they would just like him to have one, and to do it well. Do what was promised. Fix the energy crisis in this country. It really is only ever Labor that could give us a part-time energy minister during a full-time energy emergency. Only Labor could prioritise global summits ahead of Australian families who are suffering to keep the lights on. Labor's priorities are wrong, and Australians are still paying that price.

Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise to speak to this matter of public importance and to follow the mover of the motion, Senator Hume. The content of her contribution really tells me that she hasn't—the effort into her MPI is not really up to scratch, I'm sorry. What I mean by that is it did seem like it was more tongue-in-cheek. I thought Senator Hume's contribution was more tongue-in-cheek. Unfortunately, the issue of energy is a serious matter, and this MPI really shows that the opposition are not here to take that issue seriously. In terms of their position on energy, they're here because they're climate deniers dragged around by the Right and the further right of their own party. The MPI is not about policy; it's a distraction from the chaos overtaking the Liberal Party. Their leader is under pressure, their backbench is undermining them, and their party is split. Ms Ley would rather deny climate change exists than face what is going on in her own ranks.

The simple truth is this—I actually said this earlier today, but it is worth repeating because these are the facts—the opposition had almost 10 years to put an energy policy in place, and they failed. For a decade they went from slogan to slogan without delivering a single settled plan. Twenty-three different policies came and went. None of them stuck. None of them delivered certainty. None of them delivered investment. All the while, the system aged, and the market moved. During their time in government, 24 out of 28 coal-fired power stations announced they were closing, and yet they did nothing to prepare the country for it.

I know those opposite understand this. They know that these are the facts. They know that their inaction is a key reason Australians face the pressures they do today. When you ignore a problem for 10 years, it doesn't go away; it becomes harder to fix. Instead of taking responsibility, the opposition now want to entirely abandon net zero, a target they signed Australia up to and which their own colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria still support.

What we are watching here today is not a policy debate; it's a party being pulled apart by its extremes. They come in here, attacking a very good minister, Minister Bowen. They come in here time after time, attacking the COP process, even while Australia has been asked to take on a global leadership role, Senator Hume—a global leadership role! They attack global cooperation because it suits the internal politics of their party. Their party, the Liberal Party, has lost its way.

Meanwhile, the Labor government is focused on protecting Australia's interests and restoring credibility after a wasted decade. We have secured an unprecedented role for Australia and the Pacific at COP31. Turkiye will host the conference, and Australia will lead the negotiations. It's a significant honour for Australia. We will lead the negotiations from the end of COP30 through to COP31. We should be very clear about what this role actually means for Australia. Securing it has not been automatic; it took real partnership with the Pacific and serious diplomatic work. (Time expired)

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The irony of this motion is obvious to anyone watching from home. The coalition accused the energy minister of prioritising global summits, when clearly they are not doing enough. We failed our COP bid, and the Prime Minister didn't even bother turning up to the world's biggest climate meeting. Our chance to lead the region went up in smoke because of weak leadership and a climate rhetoric that collapses under scrutiny.

I'm no fan of Labor, but I do find it ironic that the same people who are in the comments sections and on the coalition benches ridiculing domestic climate action because Australia is too small to make a difference are now angry that Australia is going to put effort into global climate action at the COP. 'Australian emissions are too small to save the planet,' they said last week while abandoning net zero. 'Focus on Australia,' they say this week, completely undermining their own clown show. Well, here is some good news for the climate deniers on the coalition benches: Labor doesn't really have a plan for climate action either. They take donations from the same fossil fuel industries, they take the same jobs after politics and they approve the same giant fossil fuel projects stretching out to 2070.

Let's be clear. While coalition hypocrisy is loud, Labor's complicity is quiet, but it is just as destructive. One of their own members even admitted this week that our gas export regime is absurd. Here is a fact that every Australian deserves to hear: no gas export project has ever paid a cent of petroleum resource rent tax. The government collects more from HECS—off the backs of our students—than from the PRRT. Now that is a failure of national policy! Despite all of the scare campaigns, 99.7 per cent of Australians do not work in the oil and gas industry, yet our national energy policy continues to be written for them. Meanwhile, tying domestic supply to volatile global gas markets keeps pushing up prices for Australian households, all while Australia's gas is shipped offshore for next to no return, doing nothing for our energy security and leaving behind environmental destruction.

No matter how many talking points the fossil fuel lobby feeds into this chamber, the facts do not change. Renewables are cheaper. Renewables are cleaner. Renewables are reliable. Australians deserve a government and an energy minister who treat that reality as a mandate, not as an inconvenience.

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

Josh Dolega (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hume for providing me with the opportunity to highlight the strong record of the Albanese Labor government on energy, international diplomacy and leadership. Quite frankly, it's quite remarkable that the senator has chosen this topic, given the chaos and the divisions in the Liberal and National wannabe One Nation parties. This government has delivered the most significant uplift in Australia's international influence in a generation. In 2026, Australia, together with our Pacific family, will lead the global conversation on climate. We will preside over a landmark pre-COP, giving the world an opportunity to see Pacific climate impacts and solutions firsthand. This will give our Pacific family the global stage that they have always deserved, and this is real leadership from a friend. It stands in contrast to those opposite who, in 2015, belittled our Pacific family, who are at risk of rising sea levels. Still, in 2025, they continue to disrespect our Pacific family through scrapping net zero and through their ideological infatuation with coal-fired power stations. It isn't leadership; it's just, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Instead of delivering one-liners, this government is delivering a responsible energy plan that creates jobs, that gives business certainty, that cuts emissions and, most importantly, that delivers for our economy. Just last month, renewables supplied half of the national electricity market, while wholesale electricity prices fell by a third in the last quarter, a direct result of record renewable uptake and a reduced reliance on coal and gas. That's right; lower coal and gas output does mean lower prices. We've also delivered energy market reforms to protect consumers and force retailers to deliver fair deals. One in three households now have rooftop solar, with over four million installations nationwide. Since July, more than 120,000 households have had batteries installed under our program, boosting battery capacity nationwide by 50 per cent in just a few months. This is what happens when you listen to the science, when you cooperate and when you plan.

The Australian Energy Market Commission is clear: delaying renewable energy generation and transmission drives up prices. All credible experts agree that a renewable powered grid is cheaper than fossil fuels. But what's the cost of doing nothing? It's staggering. Clean Energy Council research from March warned that, if we keep relying on coal and gas and delay renewables, household power bills could soar by $449 every year by 2030. If a major coal-fired power station fails, that figure rises to over $600 annually. But it's not just households who pay the price. Treasury modelling shows that a disorderly transition could drain $1.2 trillion from the Australian economy by 2050. That's 1.2 trillion bucks gone—the cost of inaction.

The coalition asks, 'Why are bills so high?' The answer is, 'Because of them.' They created policy paralysis, investor uncertainty and great instability. They failed to land 23 different energy policies in their decade of neglect. They failed to protect Australia from global price shocks, which directly contributed to the dramatic price rises in 2022-23. They abandoned their own National Energy Guarantee because of internal climate wars, not because it didn't work. They ignored warnings that 24 of the nation's 28 coal-fired power stations were approaching end of life, and they've opposed our energy bill relief at every step. Worst of all, some of them just keep spinning reports, pushing narratives defined by conspiracy that fail to withstand even the most basic scrutiny. Yet they have the audacity to lecture this government on energy. We're not part time on net zero; we're all in, every single day. Those opposite are part time on facts—that's being generous—and they are full time on tearing each other apart. Experts have confirmed that the coalition's plan, if you can call it that, will not reduce power bills. Instead, their plan would raise bills, raise emissions and raise uncertainties. (Time expired)

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

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, has presided over rising electricity prices, falling energy reliability and an emissions reduction program that is flatlining, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decided to reward the minister for energy with the full-time frequent flyer role of being a part-time Australian energy minister while he takes up the role of 'His Excellency the PON', 'His Excellency the President of Negotiations', for the COP31 conference that will happen next year in November. This is my bold prediction: electricity prices for Anthony Albanese will be like the carbon tax for Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. Remember, it was Chris Bowen, the member for McMahon, who robbed Bill Shorten of his election victory in 2019. And now it is Chris Bowen, the member for McMahon, who is going to rob Anthony Albanese of his third parliamentary term at the next election. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese instead thinks that he should reward the minister for energy.

There are some questions for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and some questions for Chris Bowen, the minister for energy. As he assumes his position as the PON, the President of Negotiations, for the COP31 conference, these are the questions he needs to answer. Will the minister for energy attend every parliamentary sitting day in 2026 up to the point of the COP31 conference, which happens in November? That's the first question: will Minister Bowen attend the House of Representatives on every sitting day to take questions from the opposition about a whole range of matters—predominantly why electricity prices are still rising in our country? The second question is: what Australian taxpayer resources and which officials from which departments will be used to support the minister for energy, Chris Bowen, in his new role as the PON?

The third question is: will the minister for energy, Chris Bowen, excuse himself from cabinet deliberations on issues where there's a clear conflict between Australia's national interest and the work that he does to negotiate for COP31, where the interests of other nations might be ahead of our own national interest? The fourth question is: when the minister for energy, Chris Bowen, the member for McMahon, is travelling around the world doing his President of Negotiations work—remember that Istanbul, in Turkiye, is 15,000 kilometres away from Canberra and that it takes 24 hours to fly from Canberra to Istanbul—who will look after the interests of the citizens of McMahon? Those 120,000 voters deserve to be represented by a full-time member of the House of Representatives.

Those are the four primary questions that Prime Minister Albanese might like to think about and might like to turn up to the House of Representatives tomorrow and Thursday with clear answers to. If he cannot provide clear answers to those four questions, then Chris Bowen, the member for McMahon, is the wrong choice. Despite what Chris Bowen, the minister for energy, has said, it is totally incompatible for him to be the minister for energy at a time when electricity prices are rising, when reliability is falling and when our own emissions reduction experience in this country under his watch is flatlining and to also take on the role of President of Negotiations.

You might ask: why is this happening now? I've got an answer to that question. It just so happens that it coincides with this month's release of the Australian Energy Council's report on the future of electricity prices in this country, on the future of energy reliability and on the future of emissions reductions. It's a very, very bad and gloomy report, and it marks the minister for energy down. This is not the time to be rewarding Chris Bowen. (Time expired)

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the discussion has expired.