Energy Minister Chris Bowen's assertion that electricity prices have fallen is detached from reality, as both Chris Uhlmann's analysis and today's Australian Energy Regulator (AER) report confirm.

Australians are struggling under the burden of soaring energy costs, with a record 1.9% of customers—over 130,000 households—on hardship payment plans as of June 30, up from 95,634 last year.

Meanwhile, Bowen touts statistics propped up by taxpayer-funded rebates, claiming these reflect real price reductions.

This is misleading at best.

As Uhlmann writes, Bowen relies on selective data, highlighting a 17.3% drop in electricity prices in the September quarter.

However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) clarifies that this fall was "entirely due to massive federal and state government rebates."

Excluding these, prices actually rose 0.7% in the same period.

Sky News’ Laura Jayes rightly pressed Bowen on this, calling out the absurdity: “We’ve got to remove rebates from that because that’s not what you promised.”

Australia’s renewables-driven power price fiasco is even more absurd because with the budget going into deficit this financial year, the government will be borrowing money to pay power bills.

Albanese and Chalmers are borrowing money on the national credit card to pay householders power bills which are out of control because of spending on the “energy transition”.

This is all to make themselves look good in an election year.

The AER report underscores the crisis facing mums and dads, revealing that average debt for households on payment plans has reached $1,476, while only 26% manage to clear their debts.

Despite Bowen’s assertions that renewables will reduce costs, 60% of NSW’s electricity at peak times this week still came from coal, with wind and solar contributing negligible amounts.

But that is not stopping Bowen. AS Robert Gottliebsen points out in today’s Australian, “a $660bn energy spending plan spread over the next 25 years is planned” and “that will substantially increase the cost of electricity”.

There’s far more electricity bill pain to come.

The Family First Party rejects this flawed agenda. Our Senate candidates—Lyle Shelton (New South Wales), Christopher Brohier (South Australia), and Bernie Finn (Victoria)—are campaigning to halt the destructive rollout of renewables.

Our focus is on pragmatic solutions, like preserving coal and transitioning to nuclear, to bring down power prices and provide relief to struggling families.

Labor’s energy policies are leaving Australians in the dark—literally and financially. Family First calls for a return to common sense to end this unnecessary hardship.

ACTION: Join the fight for affordable and reliable electricity. Join the Family First Party today.