Interview with Sally Sara, ABC Radio National Breakfast

SALLY SARA: Energy retailers won’t be able to increase prices more than once a year and will be forced to remove any unfair fees for vulnerable customers under major new reforms announced today by the Australian Energy Market Commission. While the changes have been labelled a significant milestone in consumer protection by the commission, they won’t come into effect until July next year.

Joining me now is Chris Bowen, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Sally. Thanks for having me on.

SALLY SARA: Before we look at these energy reforms, we’ve heard on AM that there’s been a significant number of Australians who are seeking to get out of the Middle East right now. What is the update with repatriation flights? Are they any closer to happening?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, obviously, Sally, it’s a very difficult situation with the airspace closed over both Israel and Iran. Obviously that makes evacuations particularly challenging. There are about 600 Australians in Israel, about 650 in Iran who’ve registered for evacuation. And, of course, from my point of view, Sally, there’s many, many more Australians with relatives in Iran particularly from my community. A lot of Iranian Australians or Australians with Iranian heritage. But, of course, Australia has very well-established consular procedures for evacuations. Tragically we’ve had to do too much of this over the last few years. Penny Wong and DFAT are now quite well versed in how to get this done as efficiently and quickly as possible. But no-one’s going to pretend it’s going to be easy in this situation with airspace closed and a war-like situation underway.

SALLY SARA: Is the Federal Government concerned that the US President hasn’t ruled out striking Iran militarily, especially given Australia’s repeated calls for diplomacy and de-escalation?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, you’re right – that’s our approach. We think that is the best approach in this instance. Iran does need to come to the table – back to the table and cease its development of nuclear weapons. But obviously we believe the best solution – and we’re not alone in this – among like-minded partners around the world, the best way forward here is de-escalation, restraint and dialogue to stop what is a very perilous situation getting worse.

SALLY SARA: The Iranian ambassador to Australia says that the Prime Minister should condemn Israel for its air strikes. Should he?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have been very clear about our views that we don’t agree with some of the activities of Israel over recent weeks and months. Now, of course, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will make further statements as the situation unfolds. We’ve also made our view clear about what Iran needs to do in this circumstance. Now, we don’t take instructions from any other nation. We’ll act as we always have under this government – in Australia’s best interests, in accordance with our values, and that’s the situation that’s been outlined in, I think, a quite open and full way by the Foreign Minister in recent days.

SALLY SARA: So does Australia think that Israel’s strikes on Iran are legal under international law when it comes to a pre-emptive strike?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, my focus and the government’s focus at the moment is obviously working to ensure that Australians get every support they can who are in that circumstance and I’ve outlined some of the difficulties there. Also we’ve called for the de-escalation of the dispute. And that is our focus at the moment. I’ll leave the Foreign Minister to make further statements on behalf of Australia’s foreign policy.

SALLY SARA: Let’s return to your portfolio. These new rules for energy consumers, how much do you anticipate Australians will benefit from these changes?

CHRIS BOWEN: Look, these are important. I’m not going to pretend that they’re a silver bullet. But clearly the situation hasn’t been working. And the Default Market Offer – which I announced reforms to yesterday – was put in place in 2019. I’m not particularly critical of the previous government for the way they did it; I’m sure they were doing their best at the time. But it hasn’t worked to put downward pressure on price. It is complex. It is opaque. It is not well understood by consumers or commentators or very many people.

But also other things needed to change, and you’re right – the Australian Energy Market Commission has today issued rule changes. Last year I asked them to consider seven rule changes with the support of my state and territory colleagues unanimously. They’ve issued five changes today which are important. Again, I’m not pretending that they will, you know, completely be revolutionising the way energy bills work in this country, but things like only one increase a year, a clear requirement on energy retailers that customers in hardship should be on their best available energy plan, there are many, many Australians either in hardship or not hardship who aren’t on their best possible plan. That’s not their fault. We need to make it as easy as possible for them to change – energymadeeasy.gov.au has been an initiative. It is easy to navigate.

But we know that from research around 40 per cent of Australians don’t even read their energy bill because they’re busy people, and the information that we put on energy bills that you might not be on the best offer, we need to do more and better. We are taking these steps today as part of the reform process. The reforms I announced yesterday and today’s changes are part of an ongoing reform process to make the energy system better and fairer for Australians. And so this is important.

SALLY SARA: How will vulnerable consumers know that they’re being charged with unfair fees?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, again, this is the point I’m making – that we and the sector, the energy companies, need to collaborate on ways to do that better. There’s a requirement at the moment under law that your energy bill tells you whether you’re on the best possible offer from your retailer. Many, many Australians aren’t. And that’s not good enough in my view.

So that’s what I said yesterday – the DMO can’t be said to be working if we’re putting all the heavy lifting on the consumer to go and find a better deal. Now, some of the things that we’re doing are ensuring, for example, that some customers are automatically on the best plan that they possibly can be. That’s a good thing. We shouldn’t be requiring people who are vulnerable on hardship to be navigating a complicated system. That’s the way it is at the moment, frankly. And I didn’t think it was good enough. The state and territory Ministers don’t think it’s good enough. Clearly the Australian Energy Market Commission who looked at this at my request don’t think it’s good enough. And so we need across the system to get a better system. And the reforms I announced yesterday and the AEMC’s announced today are a pretty big step towards that new system.

SALLY SARA: You’re listening to Radio National Breakfast, and you’re hearing from the federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen.

Minister, let’s push through a couple of other topics quickly. Under the Paris Agreement you need to release Australia’s 2035 emissions targets by September this year. The initial preliminary deadline has already been postponed. How far off are you from announcing that target?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, we’ve been asked – countries of the world have been asked – to put their targets in by September. Of course we’ll do that. Very few countries so far have. The vast majority of countries around the world are going through the process. Our process in Australia, Sally, I’ll say is world’s best practice in my view. It was set up by the Albanese government, an independent Climate Change Authority, very rigorous process, advising me on what they think the target should be. I’ve not yet received that advice. When I do, I will consider it and then take that to the cabinet under our best practice process. That advice from the Climate Change Authority will be released for all to see. And that’s the process we’ll work through.

So to answer your question: we’ll do it not a day after its ready and not a day before it’s ready. We’ll do it when that rigorous process prescribed by law by our Climate Change Act, which I think is the best in the world – the world’s best practice in terms of rigour and transparency – is complete.

SALLY SARA: Australia is still in the contest with Turkiye to host COP31 climate talks. In a speech earlier this week you said that you were hopeful of a resolution soon. What will it take to get Turkiye to drop out? Are we offering any incentives?

CHRIS BOWEN: With due respect, Sally, I’m not negotiating with Turkiye through the ABC; I’m negotiating with Turkiye directly. Look, that is the situation you’ve correctly identified – Australia and Turkiye are both bidding. We’ve been very respectful of Turkiye’s bid. That’s why I’m not, you know, going into details about the discussions. And we respect their right to bid. But also we believe it’s way beyond time that the COP comes to the southern hemisphere. It’s been recently in Dubai and Sharm el-Sheikh and Baku and, you know, it’s time to come to the Pacific to put the Pacific’s issues on the world’s table, on the world’s agenda, countries whose very existence, it’s an existential matter, is up for debate. And also Australia with our process of developing our renewable energy magnificent resources to help the world decarbonise, we believe we have something to offer that process.

It’s a great opportunity for our country and our ambitions to become a renewable energy superpower. It’s the world’s largest trade fair now. It’s also a great opportunity to cement the leadership that Australia has restored to our climate negotiations. We were not that long ago a pariah in our international negotiations. Now we have a lot of support to host the COP in Australia. It’s a huge turnaround. We have, I don’t mind saying, the majority of the support in our group, which is the constituency which decides it, but there is a process which is meant to work on consensus and agreement between Australia and Turkiye. I’ve spent a lot of time working on that. It’s not resolved yet, but we’ll continue to do so.

SALLY SARA: Chris Bowen, thank you for your time this morning.

CHRIS BOWEN: Always a pleasure, Sally. Good on you.

SALLY SARA: Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy.