Opinion: PM quietly shelves promise of lower power prices

Labor’s mismanagement of our energy system is like just another Noughties stoner comedy, writes Matt Canavan.

The governor-general opens a new parliament following an election by giving an address.

The speech is not really her words. It is written by the government to outline its plans, and the governor-general delivers it on behalf of the prime minister.

Three years ago, when Parliament was opened, the Governor-General promised that newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would “save families and businesses hundreds of dollars a year on their electricity bills”.

That promise was broken, and average electricity bills went up by hundreds of dollars instead.

This week the Governor-General opened a new Parliament following the re-election of the Albanese government in May.

Mysteriously the promise to save families and businesses hundreds of dollars had disappeared.

The only reference now to electricity bills is a promise that a 30 per cent discount on the cost of installing a household battery would help in “lowering energy bills”.

But a household battery costs around $10,000.

So even with a 30 per cent discount you would need to find $7000 to qualify for a lower energy bill.

Under the second term of the Albanese government only rich people can look forward to lower energy bills, and only then if they fork out thousands of dollars first.

When the Labor Party was first elected, they promised to lower power bills by $275 a year. Back then, Labor’s Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that “the global shift to net zero emissions will mean lower energy prices as we replace expensive coal and gas with cheaper renewables”.

Well, it has been over three years since Australia signed up to net zero and the Australian people are rightly asking, “Dude, where is my cheaper energy?”

Since we signed up to net zero, electricity prices are up 31 per cent and gas prices are up 40 per cent.

The federal government has spent billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies to mask these increases, but the discounts are set to run out by the end of the year.

Larger businesses have not received subsidies and the pain caused by high energy prices is starting to risk jobs.

Labor’s energy policy is like a Noughties stoner comedy.

This week Glencore warned that its copper smelter at Mount Isa and its copper refinery at Townsville may have to pause production.

If that occurs 17,000 jobs will be lost and unemployment may surge in North Queensland back over 10 per cent, which last happened when the nickel refinery shut in 2016.

The Australian Workers’ Union said earlier this month: “Between skyrocketing energy prices, cheap dumping and tariff wars, smelters such as Nyrstar and Glencore Mount Isa are up against a wall.”

When even the unions are complaining about Labor’s mismanagement of our energy system, you know things are dire.

Most likely, governments will be forced to spend billions more to prop up our ailing smelters, refineries and steelworks around Australia. At least 10 major factories are seeking government assistance.

We must keep these industries because they are essential for our nation’s defence.

Every Joint Strike Fighter contains over 500kg of copper.

We should have a natural advantage in the manufacture of metals.

Making industrial metals requires the application of enormous amounts of energy to valuable rocks.

We have the valuable rocks (like copper, bauxite and lithium) and we have the cheap energy.

But instead of using our coal and gas we export it to China so that they can make the metals and we become dependent on them.

When Ashton Kutcher could not find his car after a night out, he went to his friend Nelson to perform “altered consciousness memory retrieval” so they could put themselves in the state of mind of the night before, retrace their steps and find their car.

That basically amounted to them getting wasted again, being blackmailed by a transsexual stripper and then becoming abducted by UFO enthusiasts who were seeking to recover a “Continuum Transfunctioner”.

I worry that Chris Bowen’s search for cheaper energy could follow a similar plot.

He is probably going to waste billions more seeking to retrace his failed steps and along the way there will no doubt be charlatans selling the latest energy “transfunctioners” from hydrogen to offshore wind.

But this endeavour will not be the harmless fun of a 2000s stoner comedy.

Continuing high prices will put at risk more and more industries.

Eventually, Australians may be left asking, “Dude, where’s my job?”