Chris Bowen and the Labor government promised Australians a $275 reduction in power bills.
Instead, electricity prices have skyrocketed by as much as $1,300 per household.

The latest Australian Energy Regulator (AER) draft pricing indicates that power bills will rise by another $200 per year from July (Herald Sun, March 13, 2025).

Labor’s answer to the cost-of-living crisis it has created is to borrow more money to hand back to households to make us feel good.

But it is la la land stuff.

Driving electricity prices up by pursuing net zero drives the cost of everything up.

Both sides of politics are responsible for this mess.

It was the Coalition under Scott Morrison which signed Australia up to net zero and despite the protestations of lone voices like Senator Matt Canavan, the majority of the Liberals and Nationals party rooms support net zero and staying in the Paris climate accords which are the source of our economic pain.

The fantasy that renewables would bring down power prices has been utterly debunked (The Australian, March 17, 2025). Instead, the mad rush to wind and solar has made electricity more expensive and less reliable. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been funnelled into subsidies propping up unreliable renewables, while families struggle to pay their bills (The Australian, March 17, 2025).

Labor and the Coalition’s obsession with net zero has forced the premature closure of coal-fired power stations, stripping the grid of reliable baseload power.
Meanwhile, the vast web of transmission lines needed to connect wind and solar farms to the grid is costing Australians billions—costs that are being passed directly onto consumers (The Daily Telegraph, March 15, 2025).

The so-called ‘cheapest pathway’ modelling used to justify this energy disaster was always a sleight of hand. These reports ignored the true cost of renewables—the backup storage, the massive land use, and the staggering taxpayer subsidies required to keep them viable (The Australian, March 17, 2025).

Now the truth is out: Labor’s energy policies are a disaster, and families are paying the price.

Family First is standing against this madness. At this election, we are fielding candidates who will fight to bring down power prices.

That means exiting the Paris Climate Agreement, abandoning net zero, and restoring common sense to our energy policy.

We need an energy mix that prioritises cheap, reliable power—coal, gas, and in the long term, nuclear.

Australians deserve affordable electricity, not empty promises and higher bills. It’s time to end the renewable rort and put families first.

The madness of closing coal-fired power stations is finally becoming clear. Reality has caught up with the political fantasy of net zero, and the consequences are now undeniable.

The Victorian Labor government, which once boasted of its aggressive transition away from coal, is now scrambling to keep the Yallourn coal power station open beyond its planned 2028 closure.

Clearly the electricity affordability and reliability emergency is trumping the so-called climate emergency.

This backflip follows last year’s decision to extend the life of the Loy Yang power station. In New South Wales, the Minns government has already been forced to extend the life of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal plant, at a potential cost to taxpayers of up to $450 million.

What happened to all the promises that renewables would be cheaper and reliable? The grim reality is that wind and solar are not replacing baseload power fast enough, and the grid is now at risk of instability, something Family First has been warning for years. Industry experts have warned that Victoria faces blackouts and power shortages, and the Australian Energy Market Operator has been forced to intervene. The Albanese government, meanwhile, remains wedded to a net-zero dream that is crumbling under its own contradictions. Energy Minister Chris Bowen insists Australia will double its renewable energy by 2030, but even his own department knows this won’t be enough to prevent a power shortfall.

Instead of admitting their mistakes, governments are using taxpayer dollars to prop up failing policies. Extending coal plants now means millions, even billions, in additional costs. It never had to be this way. Australia was once a country with some of the cheapest and most reliable electricity in the world. Net zero has turned that advantage into an energy crisis.

Both major parties remain committed to net zero and the Paris climate accords. At the upcoming election, voters must send a message: stop the madness. Family First is standing against reckless energy policies that put ideology before common sense. Vote Family First and help bring Australia back to energy sanity.

MEDIA RELEASE

Family First welcomes the return of commonsense to America under President Donald Trump and will continue its fight for Australia to follow suit at the up-coming federal election.

Trump’s declaration in his second inaugural address today that “as of this day it will be the policy of the United States Government that there are only two genders” is a win for the safety of girls and women, Family First National Director Lyle Shelton said.

“How hard is it?” Mr Shelton asked.

“We have been calling for this for years yet Australian political leaders remained captured by Woke political correctness.

“Family First’s Senate candidates will not rest until Australia adopts the same policy.

“But it shouldn’t take pressure from a minor party for Liberal, Labor, Teals and Green to wake up to the commonsense of human biology and repudiate the crazy demands of LGBTIQA+ political activists.”

Mr Shelton said the same applied to the Paris Climate Accord with Trump today signing an executive order to leave what he described as a “rip off”.

Vice-President JD Vance said exiting Paris would save US taxpayers $1 trillion.

Mr Shelton said Australians struggling with our own home-grown cost-of-living crisis brought on in large part by Liberal and Labor Governments pursuing the Paris agenda should also be given relief which would come by withdrawing from the accord.

“The idea that so-called renewables provide cheaper and reliable electricity and save the planet is completely discredited,” Mr Shelton said.

“All we are doing by being in Paris is punishing working families.”

Family First has long called for commonsense on gender and net zero, but it has taken the re-election of Donald Trump to be a first mover.

Mr Shelton also noted Donald Trump would restore freedom of speech and religion.

“The new White House has adopted Family First’s key campaign objectives for the up-coming Australian federal election – cut power prices, protect parental rights to educate their kids and protect women and children from gender ideology.”

Mr Shelton noted that President Trump has also vowed to protect girls’ and women’s sports, get radical gender ideology and critical race theory out of schools.

“Family First is also campaigning for this and notes that the Liberal, Labor, Teal and Green political establishment are largely on a unity ticket on gender and Paris.”