Previously secret documents reveal more pressure is to be piled on families with electricity prices set to rise even further because of Labor and the Coalition’s pursuit of Net Zero.
The bedrock of any functional democracy is free and open debate. When a government begins concealing information in pursuit of ideological goals, we risk sliding into tyranny.
Just days after the Clerk of the Senate, a senior parliamentary bureaucrat and procedural adviser, labelled the Albanese Labor Government's rationale for withholding a major Department of Climate Change brief as "not acceptable", Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen MP released a heavily redacted version of that document.
The brief contained advice, strategies, and targets for the Government’s plan to reduce emissions and achieve Net Zero. Large sections were completely blacked out, including an entire 24-page section titled "Other Department Policy Areas".
The portions that remained visible included sections titled "Locking In and Accelerating Emissions Reductions" and "Navigating Global Climate Action and Delivering COP31". Within these, the brief stated that emissions would need to be rapidly reduced to meet the Government's target of cutting emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030. Another passage warned of "a further increase in retail electricity prices" over the next financial year in order to meet these targets.
All of this stands in stark contrast to the Albanese Labor Government’s election-time pledge to reduce electricity bills by $275.
Yet the greatest concern is not the Net Zero ideology itself, the climate change hysteria, or the failure to deliver affordable energy for Australian households. The real problem lies in the dishonesty and secrecy.
Australia is in a dangerous position when its own Government cannot be open and transparent with the public. By releasing such a heavily redacted and secretive brief, the Albanese Labor Government, particularly Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, has lost all credibility with the Australian people.
Australians deserve to know the truth about the Government’s climate agenda. That is why Family First is standing up for households and integrity in politics. Family First will challenge the climate alarmist agenda and restore honesty and openness to Australian public life.