14 July 2025
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Trent Nikolic: Dan, thank-you for your time. Would you define taking control of your energy bills as having to spend 60 or 70 grand to start with?
Dan Tehan: Well, I think that's what Chris Bowen expects all Australians to be paying for their electricity and for their energy over the coming years, sadly. Chris Bowen, sadly, is just clueless when it comes to reducing energy prices, and the proof is in everyone's electricity bills that they've received since the Albanese Labor Government has been in office. You'll remember that Chris Bowen promised by the end of this year that everyone's electricity bill would be $275 cheaper. Now I don't know of anyone in this country who has seen their electricity bill reduced by $275 since the Albanese Labor government came to office. So, the sad reality is that Chris Bowen isn't up to the job, and I think he should admit it. We've just seen the Commonwealth-owned corporation Snowy Hydro- they have just, through their power operator, Red Energy, just increased electricity bills in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland again, and yet Chris Bowen has had nothing to say about it.
Nikolic: Dan, the issue that I take with this sort of stuff is that if you speak to the average Australian in the street and say to them, what do you think constitutes an essential service, they'll say things like, roads, education, health, and then they'll throw power in there, energy. Now what that means then is that like we're paying for toll roads all over places like Sydney, and then paying to access them again, often not in the way that they're advertised. This suggestion here would be that you and me and everybody else would go and buy a 50 to $60,000 electric car, put 10 to 20 grands worth of solar on the roof and the associated system within the house in order to run it to then feed electricity back into the grid. There's no way in the world that that that fits the definition of taking back control of your energy.
Tehan: No, and that's not affordable and reliable energy. And this is, this is the problem also, is that we don't know whether our grid could sustain that type of technology as well, because what we've seen through Chris Bowen messing up the transition, is that we've seen our grid become less and less reliable, and we've had AEMO, which is the organization which is in charge of the grid, come out and say recently that they are very worried that we are going to see black outs. And not only that, they're very worried about how we'd be able to restart the grid, given the fact that the Albanese Labor government haven't invested in the type of energy that we need to stabilize our grid and in particular, it's been the demonizing of gas by Chris Bowen that has really taken out that ability for us to stabilize the Grid, and that's why it's become such a mess. But you're absolutely right. He has no idea about cost and what the cost of his policies are doing to the Australian people at the moment.
Nikolic: Dan, I know you have to go to a meeting, so one last question before you do run off. When I when I drive around, particularly in the suburbs, and I talk to Aussies who live in the suburbs, doesn't matter whether it's Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, people say to me, Trent, I'm not driving a 10 or a 15 or a 20 year old car because I want to, I'm driving it because I have to. My mortgage is out of control. I've got kids at school. You know, the cost of living everywhere else has gone up. I just can't justify buying a new car. Now that's any kind of new car, let alone an electric vehicle. Is that something that the opposition recognizes in opposition to a lot of what the government's telling us?
Tehan: Absolutely, we know that our economy needs cheap and affordable energy to be internationally competitive. We know that households need cheap and affordable electricity to be able to run their household and to be able to afford the basics that they need. Yet what we're seeing under everything that this Albanese Labor Government does when it comes to energy is they're quite happy to just put the price of everything up, whether it be electricity and whether it be then everything else that flows from that. That's what we've got to change. We've got to put downward pressure on energy, not continue to see prices go up and up and up as we have in the last few months.
Nikolic: Dan, I know you have to get off to a meeting. Thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat to us on Mornings.
Ends
Contact: Byron Vale 02 6277 4426 | byron.vale@aph.gov.au
