No immediate drop in energy bills under Coalition, senator Jane Hume says

Australians will not see an immediate drop in their power bills if the Coalition wins this year’s federal election, finance spokeswoman Jane Hume has admitted.

With cost of living top of mind for voters, the Coalition has promised to deliver cheaper power to households.

It has accused the Albanese government of pushing energy prices up with renewables and spruiked its alternative pathway to a nuclear grid as a more reliable, cheaper way of reaching Australia’s net-zero goal.

But in talking on the cost of living on Friday, Senator Hume admitted Australians would get no energy bill relief under the Coalition “on day one”.

“To tackle the cost of living you need to tackle inflation,” she told the ABC.

“To do that you need to do it at its sources. We would make sure that energy prices come down by putting more energy in the system.”

Pressed on a timeline, Senator Hume said it had “to start with putting more gas in the system to shore up the grid and to make sure there’s plenty of energy supply”.

Pressed further, she said: “Of course it’s not going to be a reduction in your energy bills on day one.

“The only way you can do that is through subsidies, which actually make the problem worse, because sustained increases in government spending push up inflation.”

The Reserve Bank has said government spending at federal and state and territory levels was contributing to sticky inflation but stressed it was not the main driver.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced costings for the Coalition’s nuclear plan in December, slapping a $331bn price tag on it.

He framed the upcoming federal vote as a choice between “higher electricity prices under Anthony Albanese” or a “system where we won’t have blackouts, will have consistency of power, but importantly, for families right now, will have cheaper cost of electricity”.

But he failed to say how the plan would immediately help households struggling now, telling reporters that was “a near-term picture of support that we need to address and we’ll talk more about that”.

Most energy and policy experts, including within the national science agency and energy operator, have said taking Australia atomic would take decades and could cost double the renewables course.