The Coalition is claiming Labor’s figures on keeping coal fired power stations running – the business as usual approach the opposition seems to think is the way of the future (I mean sure, if you want to just pretend there is no better way and surrender to a burning planet without a fight) are bupkis.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers talks to the media in the press gallery of Parliament House, Canberra this morning. Wednesday 26th November 2025. Photograph by Mike Bowers

To this Jim Chalmers says:

Well, one of the reasons that the Coalition’s approach to the net zero energy transformation is insane in economic terms is because it would cost the budget billions of dollars to extend the life of the least reliable parts of the energy system.

So what they’re proposing would swing a wrecking ball through the budget, through the economy, and push power prices up, not down. That’s because it would require billions and billions of dollars of subsidies to extend the life of these coal-fired power stations, which have been slated for some time to come out of the system.

Any reasonable, rational person who cares about responsible economic management knows that these power assets are coming out of the system. And so the onus is on governments to work out the best way to replace that energy which is coming out of the system.

The rational economists and experts and analysts in the energy system know that the best way to do that is with cleaner and cheaper renewable, more reliable energy. That’s why it makes no sense in economic terms what the coalition is proposing.

They’ve got this harebrained position on net zero which is driven more by the internal politics of their coalition party rooms than it is by the national economic interest.

But to the question, Chalmers says:

What we’ve done here is taken what it’s cost to extend power plants in the past, and we’ve applied it from 2028 to the power assets which are slated to close. I think, as your viewers would understand, for a long time now and a long run-up, some of these power assets – coal-fired power assets – are going to come out of the system. And so, in order to extend them, it requires very substantial billions of dollars in government subsidies that the coalition has told us how they intend to go about that or how much that will cost. So we’ve done a calculation for them which recognises that, if they want to extend the life of these power assets, it will smash the budget and will also smash the economy, and it will push power prices up, not down. And that’s why what they’re proposing to do on net zero and the energy transformation is an act of economic insanity.