PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Ms KARA COOK (Bonner) (18:53): When I talk with Bonner families at mobile offices, at community events, at schools and while doorknocking, the issue raised with me as the most pressing is the cost of living. We know that electricity prices are just one expense families face when trying to make ends meet. That is why the Albanese Labor government is helping families with real, practical cost-of-living relief.

This includes electricity prices. Through the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, Bonner families are taking advantage of solar to reduce their electricity bills; 1,609 batteries have been installed throughout Bonner—and counting. The program is such a success that, since July 2025, Australians have installed more than 200,000 cheaper home batteries.

For Bonner families and small businesses, this has brought down the cost of installing a solar connected battery by 30 per cent. This is practical, affordable, clean energy being generated in our community right now. By 2030, it is expected that the program will support more than two million Australians to install a battery, thanks to the boost in funding of $7.2 billion.

This will make it possible for more Australians to take advantage of the solar they already have. It could save families $1,000 each and every year. Locals have been telling me they wouldn't have installed a battery but for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program making it affordable for them.

Just over the weekend, I was chatting with a local family in Cannon Hill who told me that they're installing both solar and a battery this week. They said our incentives just made sense. They would not have installed the battery if it weren't for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

Now, with over four million solar installations, Australia has more rooftop solar capacity than the entire fleet of remaining coal-fired power stations across the country. There are now more Australian households with solar than with swimming pools. This means that the energy market, particularly in the sunshine state of Queensland, often has more electricity in the middle of the day than we currently use.

This is where the solar sharer scheme comes in. It is another piece of the puzzle towards cheaper energy by encouraging consumers to use the power when it's abundant, taking pressure off the grid that will be saving Australians even more. From July, Bonner residents who sign up to the new solar sharer offer through their energy retailer will be able to ensure that they are running appliances, air conditioners and swimming-pool cleaners; charging electric vehicles; and using their home batteries during the middle of the day for free.

Australians voted for cheaper, cleaner energy, and the Albanese Labor government is delivering. Since coming to office, we've cut emissions to 29 per cent below 2005 levels; added over 18 gigawatts of renewable energy, enough to power six million homes; and delivered $12.7 billion in clean energy investment in recent years. A record number of renewable energy projects got the green light last year.

In March 2025, the Clean Energy Council said: The more renewables in the system, the less we need to depend on unreliable coal-fired power and gas over time, which will provide much needed cost-relief on bills. Renewables are pulling their weight for our national electricity make-up and reducing the wholesale price of electricity. Those opposite promised a wholesale energy price of $70 a megawatt an hour when they were in government.

What was it when they left office? It was $280, and Australians have been feeling that pain. They have been feeling the pain of a decade of neglect from the coalition.

Then those opposite come here today and pretend it wasn't their fault. The Albanese Labor government is acting. We're preventing retailers from raising prices more than once a year.

We're preventing customers from being charged more than the standing offer price if their initial low-cost offer changes or expires. We're also banning excessive retailer charges for late payments and for retail contracts and ensuring that all customers are entitled to a fee-free payment method. Through programs like the Cheaper Home Batteries Program and solar sharer, Bonner families from Hemmant to Holland Park, from Carindale to Chandler, can harness the power of the sun and save on their electricity bills.

Our government, the Albanese Labor government, is continuing to deliver cost-of-living relief for all Australians today and every day.