Candid Chris Bowen spills the beans on budget energy rebate truth

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture : NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

Candid Chris Bowen, famous for arrogantly telling voters if they didn’t like Labor policies then “don’t vote for us”, has conceded that including $300 energy rebates for billionaires was part of a strategy to maximise buying lower inflation and an interest rate cut.

The Energy Minister, known for aggressive Parliamentary tactics and confronting implementation of policies, has dropped the niceties and nuances of Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers over the budget energy rebate.

Both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have emphasised that the $300 energy rebate for everyone, including billionaires, was about ensuring cost-of-living relief.

On Thursday Albanese said: “Our No 1 priority is giving Australians cost-of-living relief”.

“Tuesday night’s budget provides responsible relief for households while reducing inflationary pressure in the economy,” he said in The Australian.

Chalmers has avoided the suggestion the Government was using an accounting trick to cut inflation using taxpayers’ funds by lowering power bills through the rebate and manipulating the CPI measurements.

He’s also defended the payment of multiple rebates to billionaires as logistic necessity to ensure that everyone who pays a bill gets a rebate.

As Treasurer he has also assiduously avoided any suggestion he was putting pressure on the Reserve Bank and buying an interest rate cut before the election.

Jim Chalmers, Richard Marles with PM Albanese and Climate Minister Chris Bowen in Question Time in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Chalmers said: “I leave decisions about interest rates to the independent Reserve Bank Governor and her board. That’s appropriate. That’s what treasurers do. I take responsibility for my part of it, for doing my job.”

“And I really feel that the budget that we handed down will help the Reserve Bank Governor get on top of this inflation challenge rather than hinder it,” he said.

But on Thursday instead of sticking to the necessary logistics and the Reserve Bank is independent lines, Bowen, as a former Treasurer, took a typically aggressive line and said extending the rebate to billionaires was part of the plan to “maximise the impact of reducing inflation”.

“We’re applying energy bill relief to every Australian who gets an energy bill. And yes, that’s appropriate,” he said.

In response to a question as to why billionaires should get a rebate and even multiple rebates Bowen said: “You know, you can always come up with extreme examples, but also we wanted to maximise the impact on reducing inflation. You do that by spreading it across as many bills as you can, and you do that effectively by spreading it to every energy bill in the country.

“It’s the way you maximise the impact on inflation, which will help the Reserve Bank in their job, and we’ve designed this very carefully as to how it will maximise assistance to the Reserve Bank,” he said.

Bowen has given ammunition to the critics of the Budget who say the energy rebate is just buying an inflation and interest rate cut as well as wasteful and could have been better directed. At least he’s candid.