‘Bin fire of lies’: Labor responds to power bill ‘scare campaign’

Labor has torched a “bin fire of lies” being spread about power prices in the lead up to the election.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has been accused of adding fuel to the “binfire of lies” about power prices.

Labor has accused the minister of launching a scare campaign to win over voters, rubbishing claims its energy policies will cause household power prices to rise.

Mr Taylor has released government estimates that show households would be $560 a year worse off within a decade under Labor.

At the same time, Labor claims households would be $275 better off by 2025.

Mr Taylor has based his claim on government analysis which he has not released, but which NCA NewsWire requested from his office.

“Angus Taylor has been forced into another absolutely humiliating admission today that the numbers he cooked up and put in the papers are complete and utter rubbish,” Labor’s Jim Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.

“These are numbers from a minister you can’t take seriously, in a government you can’t take seriously on climate change.”

Labor has released its own competing scare campaigns on Medicare and the contested claim that pensioners could be forced onto cashless welfare debit cards under a future Coalition government.

Jim Chalmers has accused Angus Taylor of adding ‘fuel to the bin fire of lies’ about renewable energy. Picture: Toby Zerna

Dr Chalmers spoke to journalists after visiting electric vehicle charger manufacturer Tritium in Brisbane with Anthony Albanese on Tuesday morning.

The Opposition Leader used the press conference to announce more details of Labor’s “Powering Australia” plan to overhaul the nation’s electricity sector, which he said would create 604,000 jobs, drive down household bills and reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.

Mr Albanese accused the government of waging a “scare campaign” on power bills based on “a view that somehow renewables aren’t the cheapest form of new energy”.

“I wonder whether (Liberal MPs) who suddenly have discovered that, yes, they support net zero by 2050, agree that somehow renewables are going to lead to higher costs – which is what the basic assumption of this so-called attack is based upon,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr Taylor said: “Someone will have to pay for Labor’s $78 billion in extra investment in poles and wires – which is equivalent to a five fold increase in the value of the transmission grid relative to today.”

“Many independent energy experts from a variety of sources have lined up to point out the flaws in Labor’s transmission plan. Their views are a matter of public record,” he said.

Labor says its energy policy is in line with business and industry leaders and now is the time to invest in an onshore renewable energy sector or risk Australia being left behind.

The party has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

The Coalition is sticking with its previous target of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by the same deadline.