Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese spar over power prices, policy pain

Anthony Albanese says Peter Dutton would jeopardise Australia’s green manufacturing future, as the Opposition Leader lashed the PM for failing to admit he would not meet his vow to lower electricity prices by $275.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese says Peter Dutton would jeopardise Australia’s green manufacturing future and “stop investment” in Australia, as the Opposition Leader lashed the Prime Minister for failing to admit he would not meet his vow to lower electricity prices by $275.

When asked in regional Queensland whether Labor would be better for the resources sector than the Coalition, Mr Albanese said Mr Dutton was not interested in capitalising on the job opportunities from the net-zero transformation.

Mr Albanese used Rio Tinto’s goal to eventually power its aluminium smelter in Gladstone with hydrogen as an example of jobs that would be put at risk by a Dutton government.

“He doesn’t have a plan for the future,” Mr Albanese said in Cairns on Tuesday.

“He has a plan to stop investment in Australia.

“If we are really smart, there is no country better positioned to take advantage of the opportunity that is there, from the transformation to net zero that is happening globally, than Australia.

“There is first mover advantage in many of these things. That is why it’s important that we not go backwards, that we not say ‘No, we won’t do anything at all, we’ll stop all investment in Australia while we wait for some nuclear fantasy sometime in the 2040s to emerge’.”

Mr Albanese refused to concede on Tuesday that he would not meet the vow made before the last election to reduce electricity prices by $275 by this year, saying only that power prices would have been higher under the ­Coalition.

With Labor this week releasing modelling that claims the ­Coalition’s nuclear policy would cost Queensland’s economy $873bn by 2050, Mr Dutton accused Mr Albanese of being a “desperate PM leading a desperate government with no vision for the future”.

“On nuclear, all the PM has got is a scare campaign,” Mr Dutton said.

“The fact is that our plan is cheaper than the PM’s renew­ables-only policy, which is driving up prices; it’s more reliable than Labor’s because it will keep the lights on

“And as we saw today, the Prime Minister won’t even admit that he has ­broken his promise to reduce electricity prices by $275. Queenslanders deserve better.”

Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese was the weakest leader in Australia’s history.

“The PM has no intellectual argument against nuclear power. His position is an embarrassment,” he said.

“Nuclear power is one-third of the cost compared to what we are paying for electricity in Australia.

“Thirty-two countries have nuclear and 50 countries are in the process of getting it.”

With Queensland being Mr Albanese’s first campaign stop in 2025, Mr Dutton accused the Prime Minister of “panicking” about losing more seats in the state.

Mr Dutton said Labor’s $7.2bn investment in to the Bruce Highway was based on an existing ­Coalition policy for the federal government to provide 80 per cent of funding for the upgrades of the notorious arterial.

Mr Albanese’s first week campaigning in 2025 is focused on the key resources states of Queensland and Western Australia, but he is yet to visit a mine or speak extensively about the future of the industry.

Instead, he has focused his “Building Australia’s Future” agenda on creating jobs through government-funded infrastructure and housing projects.

On Tuesday, Mr Albanese denied that his government was ­deliberately stalling approvals of coal projects, despite Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek last month saying the government had not approved any new coalmines since it was elected.

Mr Albanese said the government had a record of approving expansions of coal, gas and renewable projects.

“It’s a good thing that approvals happen according to the law for projects, whatever they may be, under the EPBC Act, and that is the way that we operate, and that is what the minister has done,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Albanese blamed the ­Coalition and the Greens for Labor’s failure to secure any meaningful reform of environmental approvals in this term of government.

When asked why he was not focusing more on private enterprise this week, Mr Albanese said government-funded projects were good for business.

“When you have infrastructure built to help with housing through the Housing Support Program, that helps whoever wants to build houses,” Mr Albanese said.

“What it does is to build the infrastructure that’s required.

Mr Albanese is expected to visit a cattle station in the Northern Territory electorate of Lingiari on Wednesday.