Transcript - Interview with Kieran Gilbert, NewsDay, Sky News

MELISSA MCINTOSH MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENERGY AFFORABILITY
SHADOW MINISTER FOR WESTERN SYDNEY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR LINDSAY

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Subject: AEMO; energy affordability; cost of living; housing; Western Sydney.

Live on NewsDay with Kieran Gilbert (Sky News)

Kieran Gilbert

Let's go live to the Shadow Energy Affordability Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Melissa, what do you make of the comments by Daniel Westerman today? He's the head of the energy regulator, basically saying he cannot guarantee prices will be lower under the renewable energy plan of the Federal Government.

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks, Kieran, for having me on. It's an extraordinary admission by the head of AEMO and it's something that everyday Australians already know. Their power bills aren't coming down under the Albanese Labor Government and their complete and utter focus on renewables. In fact, people are paying $1,000 more now, and I think every Australian has given up on that promise of paying $275 less. So today I think the envelope has been closed. It's sealed. We're never going to get that, and that was an admission by AEMO. And this is because the government is so obsessed with a renewables only approach.

One of the local small business owners that we met in south west Sydney today with the opposition leader Peter Dutton, owns a cafe. And at first response when we said, how are things going? So, yeah, everything's great. And this is what all small businesses do. They're so proud, but you just scratch the surface a little bit. And he said “we're actually really struggling”. People are struggling right now. And you know what the top of the list was? Energy prices. He said they're paying double the amount in electricity.

Kieran Gilbert

Do you accept the AEMO argument, though, that it's the ‘least cost pathway’ - is the way he described it? He wouldn't guarantee lower prices, but he says that the pathway to that energy infrastructure is the least cost pathway. Is that something you accept?

Melissa McIntosh

What sort of comfort is that to Australians that are lining up for food banks and getting their electricity bills paid for because they can't pay their bills? What people want in Australia is lower electricity prices. And that's why our policy that we're taking to the Federal election includes nuclear, includes gas, which is so important for the supply of manufacturing and sovereign capability in this country, and of course, it includes renewables. But the Labor Government is so focused on renewables only. And it has been made clear today that energy prices will not be reduced by Labor's policies, despite the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, going out on many occasions promising Australians that renewables will mean lower energy costs. I think it's time that Labor were clear with the Australian people.

Kieran Gilbert

Yeah, I want to ask you about this other story, obviously significant on the energy front, but there was another story. My colleague Tom Connell asked Allegra Spender at the Press Club just half an hour ago about an intervention that she confirmed that she did make to the Financial Review about its ‘covert power list’, seeking to have Simon Holmes a Court removed from that list. She said that she took exception, basically, to the suggestion that Holmes a Court had influence or covert power over her as a Member of Parliament and as a woman, and didn't appreciate the fact that he was on the COVID power list. Do you think her argument stacks up?

Melissa McIntosh

Look, Kieran, I haven't been able to sit down and watch the Press Club and Allegra today because I've been out on the ground in Western Sydney on the issues that actually matter to every Australian, and that is high energy prices, that is high inflation. Another extraordinary result today is the IMF coming out and saying that Australia is top of the list we don't want to be top of because we are so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to controlling inflation. And we were out speaking to people who want to be able to afford to buy a home. And that is why we have a policy to unlock housing supply in areas like Western Sydney, where people want the Australian dream and they just can't get.

Kieran Gilbert

It right now on that story. Thank you, Melissa. Appreciate it.