Household power prices are expected to rise this financial year and Australia’s emissions reductions will need to become much more ambitious, secret advice to the nation’s energy minister shows.
The federal government has handed over briefing notes written by Chris Bowen’s department at the start of this parliamentary term, after a months-long fight to keep them under wraps.
The heavily redacted documents warn Bowen that energy costs are regularly ranked as the top concern for Australian households behind food and grocery prices.
‘Government policies have provided temporary energy bill relief to households and small businesses,’ an unredacted portion of the report reads.
‘Still, the draft Default Market Offer points to a further significant increase in retail electricity prices next financial year.’
The Default Market Offer is a set of baseline power prices for south east Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, set out by the nation’s energy regulator.
Under the most recent version for this financial year, which was published in late May, prices were expected to increase between half a per cent and nearly 10 per cent depending on the state.
A draft version was published in March, before the 2025 election.
Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen (both pictured) have been warned household power prices are expected to rise this financial year
Household power prices are expected to rise this financial year according to secret advice to the nation’s energy minister (stock)
The documents also warn a ‘strong push’ will be needed to finalise Australia’s climate commitments, and more work is needed to hit its carbon pollution goals.
‘Emission reductions need to accelerate rapidly to meet the 2030 target,’ the briefing note says.
It calls for full and timely implementation of Labor’s renewable energy policies to make Australia a ‘pragmatic climate leader’.
Since Bowen received the documents, the government has announced its 2035 target, aiming to reduce carbon pollution by between 62 and 70 per cent compared to 2005 levels.
A spokeswoman for Bowen downplayed the importance of the brief’s mention of energy prices, despite Labor having promised during the 2022 election campaign to reduce household energy bills by $275 a year if elected.
‘The reference to this financial year clearly refers to the 2025 Default Market Offer, the draft of which had already been released prior to the election,’ the spokeswoman said.
Liberal senator Dean Smith told The Australian: ‘This is part of a wider, increasingly obvious lack of transparency from Labor that is totally at odds with its false claims of accountability and openness to parliament and the Australian people.’
‘It is worrying that minister Bowen and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water appear to have followed incorrect procedure in attempting to prevent the release of this advice – raising bigger concerns about their approach to information requests generally,’ he said.
Energy costs are ranked as the top concern for Australian households
In a letter to senator Tim Ayres, Bowen said the redactions were to protect personal information, information relating to relationships with stakeholders, and cabinet deliberations.
‘It is contrary to the public interest to release this material in its entirety as the confidentiality of the briefings provided to an incoming government in the early stage of their term are essential to developing a relationship that accords with the conventions of responsible parliamentary government,’ he wrote.
‘Public release of volume one in its entirety would compromise the Australian Public Service’s role in managing the transition from one government to another. Further information that has been redacted could be prejudicial to relationships between the commonwealth and the states, as well as undermine international relations.’
Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan accused Bowen of presiding over a ‘reckless renewables rollout’ which is driving up energy costs.
‘We want to know what the costs are,’ he said.
‘Chris Bowen isn’t (being transparent) about the cost of the Labor approach.
