Friday 19 September 2025

Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said every Australian should be once bitten, twice shy on this week’s 2035 emissions reduction target of 62-70 per cent and Labor’s claims power bills will come down as a result.

Noting that Labor promised 97 times before they won Government they would reduce power bills by $275, Dr Webster said Australians deserve the facts given Labor’s track record.

“Power bills went up by over $1,000 per year, not down as Labor promised, yet now Labor wants us to believe power bills will fall $1,000?” Dr Webster said.

“Within 24 hours Minister Bowen has already started walking back the $1,000 projections, saying it wasn’t a ‘political promise’.  You cannot believe these charlatans.

Frontier Economics managing director Danny Price said the $1,000 year claim was “so dishonest”, adding “I wish governments would stop lying like this” and “I suspect most Australians know that is a bald-faced lie and those claims just can’t be supported.”

Dr Webster highlighted Labor’s delusion of a 100 per cent renewable energy target means 4,000 kilometres of new transmission lines due to Australia’s huge size relative to other, comparatively geographically miniscule European nations with similar 2035 emissions reduction targets.

“As we have seen with VNI West’s 280 kilometres of transmission lines in Mallee, Labor at federal and state levels do not give a rip about regional Australians, passing draconian laws to force their way through – including $12,000 fines for standing in the way, or $6,000 for tearing down a TCV sign on a farmer’s own fence," Dr Webster said

"That’s the danger of Labor’s zealous pursuit of a global ‘COP31’ hosting rights in 2027 – and regional Australians aren’t buying it!

“The PM might have published this nonsense so he can brag at the UN General Assembly and ‘Climate Week’ in the US next week, but the facts simply must be called out for what they are.

“Every expert not under the Government thumb says Labor will fail to meet their 2030 emissions reduction target of 43 per cent on 2005 levels.  Five years out from the 2030 target, emissions are only down 29 per cent. In what delusion do Labor think 62 or even 70 per cent could be reached in ten years?  Labor already needs to triple the rollout of wind turbines to reach the 2030 target - and no new turbine projects have been approved this year. Yet this week’s climate announcements indicated for a 2035 target, wind capacity has to quadruple, utility solar capacity tripled, and rooftop and distributed solar doubled.”

“The Prime Minister has lost his grip on reality, mired in the B.S. he spoke about at Ballarat recently.  Australians aren’t buying it, they won’t be taken for fools.

“Labor keeps calling ‘renewables’ the ‘cheapest form of electricity’ but hides the hundreds of billions of dollars Australians already pay, and will pay, on Labor’s renewables-only craze, through government subsidies, grants, on their energy bills and in their taxes.

“Labor’s failing renewables-only policy is impacting regional communities right now – damaging agricultural land and food production, steamrolling the rights of communities and increasing energy costs for families and businesses. Every time you receive your power bill, it should have Anthony Albanese’s and Chris Bowen’s face on it.”

“Labor is destroying the very thing the climate movement claims it wants to protect – the environment – with its all-renewables obsession at any cost. We are seeing the native environment being ripped up with transmission lines, industrial solar panels and wind turbines.

Australia’s emissions profile is 1 per cent of global emissions, while China is responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions, the USA over 11 per cent, India about 8 per cent and Russia 5 per cent - those four together accounting for over half the world’s emissions.   Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Iran all emit more than double what Australia does.

Last year alone, China hit a ten year high of new coal-fired power installations, beginning construction of almost 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power plants. By contrast, Australia has just 20 GW of total installed capacity.  The world has 2,270 GW of installed coal-fired power capacity.  Every year this decade, installed coal fired power capacity has grown.

Australia has reduced emissions by about a quarter on 2005 levels compared with the USA (down 17 per cent), China (up 60 per cent) and India (up 130 per cent).

After over 3 years under the Albanese Labor Government, energy prices are up, reliability is down and emissions reduction have stalled.

The planet naturally emits 4 times the greenhouse gases than man-made emissions, so Australia’s less than 1 per cent of ‘anthropogenic’ emissions is just 0.15 per cent of all annual emissions on the planet.

“There is no justification for Labor’s unscientific, ideological and political target for 2035, because it will continue to economically hurt Australian businesses and families,” Dr Webster said.

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