Jason Wood – who we forgot existed – then gets a question.

It’s a dumb question.

Under Labor the number of Australian families on financial hardship claims has surged by nearly 50 per cent. Australians including families in my electorate of La Trobe are hurting. What is the message from this minister who works part-time to more than 200,000 Australian families struggling to pay their power bills and cutting back this Christmas because of Labor’s broken promise to bring down power prices.

Gee, if only Wood had been part of a government that didn’t screw us all over for more than a decade with stupid climate wars that derailed any attempt at an energy transition. Imagine if he had that power!

Bowen:

My message to his constituents and to the people of Victoria is that we will continue to work without reservation to put downward pressure on energy prices by introducing more of the cheapest and most reliable and lowest forms of energy. (INTERJECTIONS)

The fact is that in Victoria the wholesale price of electricity in May 2022 was $233 a megawatt hour. today $77 a megawatt hour over the last quarter.

The retail increase in Victoria that wasn’t known before the 2022 election which should have been known was $61 for households and $270 for small businesses.

Six coal-fired power stations in Victoria totalling 6.8 gigawatts announced their closure under the former government… the previous government’s big scheme the underwriting new energy generation investment program delivered exactly zero gigawatts for Victoria under (INTERJECTIONS) them.

By contrast, four gigawatts of renewables and 1.2 Meg watts have been in Victoria since May 2022. A further 2.8 gigawatts of renewables and 1.8 gigawatts of storage capacity in Victoria have been selected government’s capacity investment scheme.

Under that scheme 2.8 gigawatts of renewables and 1.8 gigawatts of storage for Victoria under their scheme zero for Victoria, to be fair zero for everyone but given the question was about Victoria zero. I’m pleased to report that as of today 139,629 Australians have installed a cheaper home battery. And 23,845 of those have been in Victoria.

With that state now having 500 Meg watt hours… since 1 July. What our government is doing is delivering for the people of Victoria and repairing the damage of 10 years of denial and delay the previous government inflicted on the people of Victoria.