Sunrise’s Nat Barr confronts senior ALP minister on how emissions plan will ‘bring bills down by $1000’

Sunrise’s Nat Barr has confronted Health Minister Mark Butler over the Albanese government’s net zero plan, amid projections it will save households $1000 per year on energy costs

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the contentious and uncosted plan on Thursday, saying it would cut emissions by 62 to 70 per cent by 2035.

This would be done by requiring more than 90 per cent of electricity to be generated by renewables, 4000km of new transmission lines, and half of new car sales to be electric.

The Climate Change Authority invoked Australian Energy Market Commission modelling that projected residential electricity prices would fall by 13 per cent or $1000 a year in household energy costs over the next decade.

A number of energy experts have called the number a “bald faced lie” with many Aussies skeptical they will feel the extra cash in their pockets when the power bill arrives.

On Friday, Barr was joined by Butler and Liberal senator Jane Hume, where she questioned the figure.

Barr asked bluntly: “How are you going to cut our electricity bills by $1000 a year?”

Butler stood by the number, saying: “We (Australia) are making the transition to clean energy that is happening all around the world.

“Yesterday’s plan is the right plan for Australia, it is the right plan for our climate, consistent with the scientific advice, but it is the right plan for jobs. Treasury modelling bears that out.”

Butler explained the worst situation would be for Australia to have “no plan” and not “take advantage of opportunities as the world transitions to clean energy”.

However, Barr pressed him on the $1000 savings figure.

Barr: “(Before the last election) Albanese said 97 times you would bring our electricity bills down by $275. Now you have all these statistics, and you’re going to bring them down by $1000. Why should Australians believe you?”

Butler said it was because the plan was linked to what energy investors said they needed. He said: “Investors have said this is the plan they want. We know that clean energy is the cheapest and the cleanest form.”

Barr: “So, we should believe the investors?’

Butler: “Investors have said they have to rebuild 24 of the 28 coal-fired power stations that during (the last) Coalition government announced they would close because frankly they are getting old, they are well-beyond their life.

“Investors need a plan to invest in new energy. They have told us the cheapest form of new energy is clean energy. That is the right plan for Australia going forward. For our climate but importantly for our economy and for our jobs as well.”

Barr then turned her attention to Hume, saying the Coalition is underperforming as an opposition, accusing them of not being able to agree if “climate change is real”.

Hume took aim at the proposed $8 billion budget for the Albanese government’s new plan.

Hume: That’s not at all true. Of course, we believe that climate change is real. Of course, we believe you should bring down emissions, but the real question is at what cost?

“What Mark and his team have announced yesterday is an additional $8 billion in spending to roll out twice as many renewables as they have in the last three years, and yet at the same time, they have failed to bring emissions down at all.

“In fact, under the Coalition government, emissions came down by 28 per cent. Under Labor, they have come down zero.

“(Labor) have not moved the dial one little bit. And yet you have spent so much taxpayer money and now you want to spend even more.

“The target that the Labor government announced yesterday is not only going to not achieve those emissions reductions, but it is going to do so at the cost of taxpayers.

“What the government should be focusing on right now is bringing energy prices down.

“You released a report on Monday that was the most alarmist, Armageddon, ‘we are all going to die from climate change’ report, and it had such precise details in it.

“But at no point have you ever been able to say exactly when energy prices will come down.”

Barr then turned her attention back to Butler.

She asked if part of the government’s plan was “pie in the sky” stuff.

Barr: “Mark can you promise in 10 years that more than 90 per cent of electricity will be generated by renewables? Does that sound like pie in the sky?”

Butler: “No, we are very confident about that. Every time this country has set a renewable target, this country says we are not going to get there. Not only do we get there, we surpass it as well.

“Twenty-four of the 28 coal-fired power stations that were built in the 1970s, or at the latest the late 1980s, said they had to close because they were too old.

“It didn’t have anything to do with climate change policy, it just had to with their age. We have to replace all of that energy infrastructure.

“They will replace it with renewable energy.”