Mr BOWEN (McMahon—Minister for Climate Change and Energy) (14:55): I thank the honourable member for her question and her leadership on matters of climate and energy. Of course, as the House knows, last year, faced with heightened pressure on energy prices right around the world, we acted. Mr Ted O'Brien: You promised $275! The SPEAKER: The member for Fairfax will cease interjecting or be warned. Mr BOWEN: We acted by capping the price of coal and gas. That was controversial then and it's controversial now. The Leader of the Opposition today, just in question time earlier, claimed that capping the price of gas had forced prices up. Maybe the Leader of the Opposition should have gone to the University of Sydney to get an economics degree! Maybe we'd all be better off if that had happened, because he thinks that lower coal and gas prices lead to higher energy prices. But we've done that and it's had an impact. We've seen that impact in the draft Default Market Offer released earlier this year: 29 percentage points lower than it otherwise would have been. As Clare Savage, the Energy Regulator, has made clear, that is in large part due to the impact of the intervention by the Albanese government. That has saved up to $1,676 for a Victorian small business each year. It's saved up to $530 for a household, particularly South Australian households. Of course, we know we need to do more and tonight we will be doing more. Mr Ted O'Brien interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Fairfax will withdraw that comment. Mr Ted O'Brien: I withdraw. Mr BOWEN: The same legislation which enabled that intervention to cap the price of coal and gas enables direct rebates to Australian families and businesses—carefully designed to put downward pressure on inflation by reducing power prices directly, compared to what they would have been. I'm pleased to confirm that 5½ million households and a million businesses will benefit from that action. The Treasurer will, of course, outline more action this evening. But there's a third element as well. We understand, on this side of the House, that reducing emissions and reducing bills are the same thing. We understand that if you make a house or a business more efficient, you reduce bills as well as emissions, and we happen to think that's a good thing. Call us old fashioned but on this side of the House we think that reducing bills and reducing emissions is a good thing. We know that Australia ranks 58th out of 63 on energy efficiency of households. We can do better. In particular, lower- and middle-income household need that support. So, again, we will see tonight strong action to help households reduce their bills and emissions, particularly for those who need assistance and particularly for small business. We've already announced our tax treatment of energy efficient investments by small business which will benefit hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the country who want to reduce their emissions and reduce their bills, and we're going to help them do it.