No guarantee of cheaper power in a Labor second term

Labor is refusing to say if electricity prices will go down or stabilise in a second term if it wins, saying only that power bills would be ‘hundreds of dollars’ cheaper than under a Dutton government.

Peter Dutton on Sunday said he would, if in government, reduce power prices by fast-tracking new gas into the power system, as calls grow for more ­detail from the Coalition on its election energy plans. Picture: AFP

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Labor is refusing to say if electricity prices will go down or at least stabilise in Anthony Albanese’s second term, only giving a promise to provide power bills “hundreds of dollars” cheaper than any under a hypothetical Dutton government.

The Prime Minister’s plan to extend electricity bill subsidies in this week’s budget was already under pressure on Sunday, as Mr Albanese was unable to say if prices would come down naturally when his relief package stopped at the end of the calendar year.

Energy retailers on Sunday also pushed back against Labor’s extension of the consumer watchdog’s investigation into the sector, warning it was already heavily regulated and any hit to their profitability would only hurt the transition to renewables.

When The Australian asked Energy Minister Chris Bowen if he would either repeat his 2022 pledge of lower power bills in a second Labor term or promise a stabilisation in prices, a government spokeswoman replied that bills would be much cheaper than if the Coalition wins the election in May.

“We can guarantee they will be hundreds of dollars cheaper than if Peter Dutton was prime minister,” the government spokeswoman said.

Neither the ALP nor the Coalition has provided any modelling on what its energy plans would mean for prices over the next three years, with both parties haunted by Mr Bowen and Mr Albanese’s broken election promise to reduce power bills by $275 between 2022 and now.

Mr Albanese and Jim Chalmers had already failed multiple times in recent days to give a guarantee – when asked by The Australian – if prices would go down or stabilise in the next parliamentary term, as both repeated their reasoning why they could not achieve the $275 reduction due to global inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Despite energy bills being set to increase by up to 9 per cent next ­financial year, the Albanese government has fallen short of expectations it would extend the $300 rebate for another year when it ­expires on June 30.

Instead Australian households and small businesses will get a $150 rebate over the next two ­financial quarters.

Anthony Albanese holds a press conference in Sydney. When asked if he expected prices to fall on their own once the relief ends in January, the Prime Minister on Sunday said only that bills would have been higher now without the current subsidies. Picture: Damian Shaw/NewsWire

When asked if he expected prices to fall on their own once the relief ends in January, the Prime Minister on Sunday said only that bills would have been higher now without the current subsidies.

“Well what we’ve seen is that, in 2024, power prices fell 25.2 per cent. They would have fallen just 1.6 per cent without rebates,” he said in Sydney.

Jim Chalmers during a Sunday morning TV interview at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

Mr Dutton on Sunday said he would reduce power prices by fast-tracking new gas into the power system, as calls grow for more ­detail from the Coalition on its election energy plans.

“Well, we need to bring more gas into the system because we need to support electricity production. And we do that through gas,” the Opposition Leader said.

“If the government continues to choke the supply of gas, the price goes up. And that’s exactly what they’ve done through an ­effective tax across electricity in our system.”

As Labor pushed a longer Australian Competition & Consumer Commission investigation into the energy sector as part of its tacking of power prices in this week’s budget, industry sources rejected the need for further oversight of the sector and insisted years of reviews and investigations had found no evidence they have been culpable in stoking bills.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Photo Jeremy Piper

The peak body for energy retailers, the Australian Energy Council, said the sector was one of the most highly monitored and regulated in the country and the recent Australian Energy Regulator’s announcement on the draft default tariff indicated the market remained competitive.

“We understand the desire to ensure public confidence in the sector, but feel the AER’s existing market monitoring and oversight powers are sufficient to not need an extension to the ACCC’s inquiry,” a spokesman for the Energy Council told The Australian.

Australia’s largest energy companies declined to comment on the extension, but senior figures within the industry stressed the review was unwarranted – especially when the industry has endured years of similar investigations.

The ACCC has produced 12 reports into the prices, profits and margins in the supply of electricity in the National Electricity Market, and while concluding regularly that many households could find a better deal by switching – there was no evidence of improper behaviour by energy companies.

Other figures said the prospect of more oversight of the industry would be in stark contrast to ACCC data that shows the energy retail industry is enduring its lowest margins on record, and the decision of the AER to remove a competition allowance in order to minimise price increases.