Election pledge in jeopardy as Albanese declines to guarantee energy bill cut

Labor’s promise to slash $275 from household electricity bills by 2025 is in jeopardy after Anthony Albanese refused to commit to the key election pledge amid the worsening energy crisis.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the National Cabinet meeting at Parliament House, Canberra, on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Labor’s promise to slash $275 from household electricity bills by 2025 is in jeopardy after Anthony Albanese refused to commit to the key election pledge amid the worsening energy crisis.

With electricity and gas bills set to spike from July 1, the Prime Minister on Friday would not back in a central plank of Labor’s Powering Australia plan. Mr Albanese and senior frontbenchers – who in the lead-up to the May 21 election repeatedly referenced the electricity bill cut – have refrained from mentioning the power cost guarantee since polling day.

Asked by The Weekend Australian about whether the power bill cut was “out the window”, Mr Albanese said “we are dealing with a circumstance which is a direct result of a failure to give business the certainty they needed to invest”.

“We have problems with the national energy grid as well that isn’t capable of having transmission that is fit for purpose for the 21st century. Our plan of powering the nation is supported by the business community because they understand that it is certainty that they require to invest,” Mr Albanese said.

“The states and territories across the board, across the political spectrum, have understood this and have been investing. We are very confident that as we move forward, that certainty will enable much better outcomes.”

When asked to clarify the government’s position and say if it would commit to the cut in power bills promised before the election, a spokesman for Energy Minister Chris Bowen said: “The challenges to the energy market right now makes it more important than ever to get more firmed renewables and transmission in to bring down power prices and keep the lights on”.

After The Australian revealed the Coalition, Greens and teal independents would push back against Labor’s plan to legislate its 2030 target slashing emissions by 43 per cent, Mr Albanese attacked those who want to continue the “climate wars”.

He accused the Greens of failing to learn from their 2009 opposition to Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme. “The Greens blocked that proposal and we have had a decade of problems since. If the Greens or other parties want to try and block it, well so be it. That will be a matter for them. But we will get on. It doesn’t require legislation,” he said. “People want to end the climate wars. They want to move on and to make sure that we get better outcomes.”

Australian Greens MP Adam Brand. Picture: Sky

Greens leader Adam Bandt told The Weekend Australian that Labor “shouldn’t let their idea of perfect be the enemy of the good”.

“The country has had a gutful of the hairy-chested, ‘take it or leave it’ approach Labor’s adopting, and Labor should work with the parliament that the country elected,” Mr Bandt said.

“Labor’s targets mean the death of the Great Barrier Reef and the public wants the government to do better. The Greens are ready to work constructively, so the ball’s in Labor’s court.”

With Australia’s two biggest states heavily exposed during the east coast electricity crisis, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he was “completely committed” to getting the Santos Narrabri gas project up-and-running.

“We are … working with Santos to get that project off the ground,” Mr Perrottet said. “A key component of that agreement … has been that there be a reservation policy attached … which they have supported and agreed to.”

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said he would not budge on his fracking ban, which effectively rules-out gas extraction from the state’s vast onshore reserves.