Press conference, Canberra

CHRIS BOWEN: Well thanks for coming everyone.

Yesterday in a shocking interview Peter Dutton dishonestly claimed that his nuclear fantasy would save Australian electricity users 44 percent. Of course the flaws in his policy are there for all to see.

His assumptions are based on 40 percent less electricity being used in Australia. I mean what a genius, if you use 40 percent, it'll cost around 40 percent less. It's a fraud and a con and his modelling is a joke.

But his modelling doesn't even claim that electricity prices will fall. As his Shadow Minister, I suppose to his credit, has admitted, it's not price impact modelling. Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor are dishonestly claiming it is, and they are just wrong. Their policy, as independent experts have looked at it, because nuclear is so expensive it would force energy prices up.

And people with a particular stake in this are people across Australia who have invested in rooftop solar, who have done the right thing, who want to reduce their emissions but also want to reduce their bills by investing in rooftop solar, as around a third of Australian households have done.

Of course Australia leads the world in rooftop solar. Now people have made that investment on the basis of an understanding of their energy system. And of course, the thing about nuclear is apart from being expensive and very slow, is that it's not flexible. You can't turn it on and off. Once a nuclear power station is operating, it's operating 24/7.

Now the Liberals say that that's a good thing. What we point out is that it's not consistent with a heavily renewable energy system, and what we need to support renewables is gas peaking and firming because it's flexible, not coal and not nuclear.

Mr Dutton's plan is ill thought out. It would have an impact on Australians through higher prices, impact on taxpayers because every single dollar of their more than $600 billion of expenditure would come from the taxpayer. Again, that's not me saying it, it's them saying it. At least they've acknowledged that there's not enough private – there won't be enough private sector investment, not enough private sector interest in nuclear because it's so uneconomic.

The party of free enterprise, the party of Menzies is proposing not one, but two taxpayer funded bureaucracies to run a taxpayer funded energy system at the cost of taxpayers. Whereas our plan is predominantly financed by private sector investment in renewables.

So I want to thank the Smart Energy Council for their work in outlining some of the impact, particularly on people who have made the investment in rooftop solar. I'm going to ask John Grimes, the Chief Executive of the Smart Energy Council to talk a little bit more about that, and then Julie, our Canberra homeowner who's been kind enough to host us here today is just going to give us a few thoughts about the impact as well on Australians who’ve made the investment in rooftop solar.

John.

JOHN GRIMES, SMART ENERGY COUNCIL: Well, Minister, thank you. Yesterday on Insiders, Peter Dutton made the claim that his power plan would push down electricity prices in the order of 44 percent. And he outlined three big policies to achieve this objective.

He effectively said they will have a coal keeper program. Billions of dollars to go into coal to keep it in the system for as long as possible. Second, a gas booster program. A massive scaling up of the amount of fossil gas, the most expensive fuel in the energy system. And a solar stopper program, a cap of 54 percent on renewable energy, solar and wind, by 2050.

Today we are at 46 percent renewables in the grid. Peter Dutton's cap will come into play either late this year or early next. That's the end of the renewables transition.

I'm here today on behalf of the Smart Energy Council to table our price modelling on power bills as a result of Peter Dutton's plan. And what our modelling shows is that for 10 million Australians their power bills double under Peter Dutton. Dutton doubles power bills.

These are the solar homeowners right across the country that have made a private investment in solar. They will be slugged an additional $1,100 per year, every year, under Peter Dutton's plan.

But it's not just solar homes. It's every solar business in the country also set to pay much more than that. And it's not just solar customers, it's every electricity customer in the country poised to face a 30 percent price increase, an average of $665 per year.

Peter Dutton is not just a renewables denier; he is a renewables liar. He's told us that you can't run a modern economy on renewable energy. It's a lie. He says that power bills will come down 44 percent under a Dutton Government. It's a lie. He's told us that you can't power an EV and a battery at the same time from your solar system. It's a lie. He says that it's not possible for Australia to deploy sufficient renewables at the scale needed to meet the target by 2030. He says it's not possible for Australia to install 22,000 solar panels a day.

Well, friends, in 2024 the Australian solar industry deployed an average of 37,000 solar panels every single day. Mr Dutton is either dangerously ill informed or he is lying to the Australian public.

We know that his plan, coal keeper, gas booster, solar stopper, will effectively transfer wealth from homeowners to the big fossil fuel companies. Peter Dutton's plan delivers for his rich fossil fuel mates. But his plan, his power plan, is a big stop in the road, a stop for solar, a stop for wind, a stop for batteries, a stop for EVs, a stop for ordinary Australians slashing their power bills with solar.

A stop for the effective transition of our economy and the massive environmental benefits that that delivers, and economic benefits as well.

Peter Dutton, he has a plan that will double power bills for ordinary Australians. We think that that is outrageous. We're here today to call it out and I'm very happy to take questions on the modelling or any other aspect.

CHRIS BOWEN: Julie.

JULIE HAMILTON, SOLAR HOMEOWNER: Thanks, Minister. I am not happy with the idea that my power bills could double with the nuclear plan.

Like many other millions of Australians, I have made an investment. I mean just look around the neighbourhood how many people have solar panels, solar hot water, electric cars. We've done that because we've made an investment and once our investment is paid off then, you know, that's really cheap energy bills or none at all.

So I'm not at all happy with this idea of nuclear. I think the answer is renewables now, and they're quick to build, they're quick to install, like all our solar panels, that's the most obvious one. We can't wait for decades for something that's going to cost us more.

I also don't like the idea that we lose control as consumers of our own energy. I don't think that's fair.

CHRIS BOWEN: Great. Thanks, Julie. I'll steer questions. Mike?

JOURNALIST: Yeah, Minister, you've said that power bills will rise under Dutton's nuclear plan. Can the Albanese Government say that power bills will fall at the next round of price setting due early next year under your policies if you were to be re elected?

CHRIS BOWEN: This year I think you mean, Mike. We're in 2025 now.

JOURNALIST: I'm slow to catch up.

CHRIS BOWEN: That's all right. I'm not going to pre empt the work of the Australian Energy Regulator. I can give this undertaking: I will not be changing the law to hide the Australian Energy Regulator's default market offer, which is what Angus Taylor did when it showed a 20 percent increase, and he changed the law so that did not come out until after the 2022 election. I can give that undertaking that the default market offer will be released in the normal course of events in the normal timeline, not changed by me. I'm not going to pre empt what it says.

But to your question, power prices will be higher under Peter Dutton because of nuclear energy, the most expensive form of energy. And also, because his policy, as they admit, would involve keeping coal in the grid for longer, which is highly unreliable, and as the Australian Energy Regulator has pointed out, when we've had high levels of coal fired power break downs, that has led to price spikes.

JOURNALIST: The Climate Change Authority has been waiting to see what the Trump Presidency would do in relation to its climate policies before it delivers advice to the Australian Government. Are you confident now that you could set a 2035 emissions reduction target before the upcoming election?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I'm confident that I will be complying with the law, which is the Climate Change Act, which would make it unlawful for the Government to set a climate 2035 target before receiving advice from the Climate Change Authority. Once I've received that advice I will work it through the normal Cabinet processes.

In relation to the election, I'm not sure when the Prime Minister's calling the election. It's probably relatively soon but I don't know when that's going to be.

I've got a question on the phone by the looks? Okay. Charles. We'll go to Charles.

JOURNALIST: Hi, Minister. Thank you for doing this and sorry for jumping in this unusual way. AGL have approved the demolition and reconstruction of the Liddell site in the Hunter Valley, this is one of the places that the Coalition had indicated they were looking to put a nuclear power plant. Do you know what this approval from AGL and the fact that this process will already begin before the Coalition start what they're doing, what that will do to the plan?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well it's one of the fatal flaws, Charles, in the Opposition's plan. I mean nuclear power is banned not only by Commonwealth law but in the law of five States. But of the seven sites, six owners have made explicit that they want nothing to do with nuclear power. Six out of the seven sites. I mean what is Mr Dutton proposing that he's going to compulsorily acquire the land from AGL, to force them to put a nuclear power plant on something they don't want to? Or where, as you point out, they almost certainly will have built an entirely different infrastructure focussed in no small part on renewable energy and renewable energy manufacturing on that site.

They haven't thought it through. This plan falls apart as soon as you show it to the light, partly because the owners have all got different plans for these sites than Mr Dutton, and they are at the end of the day the owners of the land.

Now again, I'm old fashioned, I think owners of land should be able to do what they want with that land, not be told by Mr Dutton what they'll do with that land. I would have thought the party of free enterprise would have that view as well. 

JOURNALIST: And just to follow up, from memory, that was going to become a battery site. In terms of jobs and the power to the region, do you have a rough outline of what you can guarantee will be produced by a battery there?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I'd say this, there's a number of plans for that site. Yes, it's already the site of construction of a big battery. Also, as we've previously outlined, SunDrive, the cutting edge Australian solar panel manufacturer wants to use that site as part of their future plans, and as they've pointed out, when that plan comes to fruition and is up and running it would employ more people than were employed at the old Liddell power station.

Now, that's just one of the proposals. This is a very big site which can cater for a lot of industry. I know AGL has other plans and other discussions with other manufacturers about that site as well, because it can handle the battery and SunDrive and so many more. So they would clearly use that site to employ so many more people than used to be employed at the Liddell power station.

Mr Dutton wants to stop all of that, to come in, arrogantly ride roughshod over the owners of the land, tell those who have got plans to make solar panels and other things and use it as a battery that they're wrong, they're not allowed to do that. It's just another example of how whenever you put Mr Dutton's plan up to scrutiny it crumbles like a Sao in a blender.

JOURNALIST: That's all I need, thank you.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thank you, Charles. Anything else from you, Mike? I think – anybody else? All in, all done? That's a wrap, thank you.