Maybe Ben Small has an early flight back to WA? Because the member for Forrest just did all he could to get booted out under 94A.

We are back in gotcha land with Dan Tehan asking Chris Bowen:

Will the Minister confirm that the government will meet each renewable energy target of 82% by 2030?

Will the minister confirm a target will be met in the future, right now, at 2.25pm on Thursday 31 July 2025? Will the minister get in his time machine and confirm that target was met? Will the minister fall into this very obvious trap?

Of course not. It is Bowen, one of the best people Labor have for twisting a question to the one he wants to answer, rather than the one he was asked. That’s not a sledge, it’s a political skill, and it isn’t as if anyone actually expects to get answers here, or that the Coalition even know what they are doing asking these questions.

Bowen:

I can absolutely confirm that it is this government’s intention to continue to work towards that target, 2030, absolutely and I am pleased to tell the honourable member that we making good progress towards it. It is 2025 and we are working towards that 2030 and we are making good progress. In the last financial year, 4.4 gigawatts of their renewable energy was added to the grid. Up and running. But the pipeline was 15.6 gigawatts which is a massive amount of renewable energy, I know it upsets those opposite to hear those points, just this week there was $1 billion announced to be invested in Australia’s renewable energy system by a very large international investor, this is good news, at least we think it is on this side of the house. Just today, AGL announced a multihundred million dollar investment in energy storage in our country, Mr Speaker, which is a good thing stop all of this leads to an addition to a renewable energy pipeline for our country, we think it is a good thing and they think it is a bad thing.

There are a bunch of points of order and interjections but really, who has the energy?

Bowen finishes with:

In addition to that big battery that has been announced today I can confirm what the Prime Minister told the House a few moments ago, in the last four weeks 18,000 336 Australian households have added a battery to the household under the cheaper homes battery policy. Asking will we meet our targets, I believe we will.

But we know whether target is believe me it takes temerity from those opposite to ask this side of the house about meeting our targets when they can’t agree on whether they have a target, Mr Speaker. Just before Question Time the house voted on the new England members Bill, do not have voted to on the bill? Side of the house plus the Member for new England. Everybody else over there voted against the house getting the chance to vote for the bill, even the bromance, the member for New England and the member fore Riverina, they don’t even know what their target is.

Matt Keogh says in response:

I thank the member for, is very important question, I very much recognise the place it comes from as an experienced member dealing with veteran issues, a former Minister for Veterans’ Affairs who very much put himself on the line and making sure he was standing up for getting services for veterans.

As the member pointed out the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, went to and spoke about the importance of dealing with more holistic well being and care for a veteran community.

Certainly we went to the 2022 election we made a commitment to rolling out 10 veterans and families hubs across the country, we made sure that we selected locations based on the highest concentrations of veterans and families around the country is the priority area to focus on rolling out those hubs and it means that we are now in the process of having opened and a rolling out some 17 veterans and families hubs.

I would like to emphasise the point that these are hubs to support services for veterans and families as well. In the final report of the royal commission, there were a number of recommendations that go to veteran and family well being and in particular, recommendations going to the ongoing operation of veterans and families hubs, tying them into the work of one of the other recommendations, which was to establish a specialist well being agency within the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Government has accepted that recommendation and funded DVA to adapt codesign work with the veteran community to ensure that there is proper consultation across the veteran community with what that well being agency will look like, and how it will interface with the veteran and family have network across Australia to make sure that veterans, no matter where they are located, are able to access the support that they need to have improved well being. I am certainly very happy to meet with a Member for Calare and come out to Bathurst and Orange RSL is to make sure that we are delivering the sorts of well being benefits services and supports for veterans in your area just as we want to have the entire country, veterans and families get the support that they need and deserve and look forward to coming out to your community to meet with your veteran community as well.

Andrew Gee, the former Nationals MP turned independent, who was re-elected to Calare as an independent even though the Nationals were telling everyone it was a lay down win for them ahead of the election, and if people want to be technical, no the Nats did not win every seat they held, because at the 2022 election they held Calare, and now it is independent, asks:

The royal commission into defence and veteran suicide highlighted a tragic human cost of the country failing to care for our ADF personnel veterans and their families, veterans and families.

Well being hubs are a step in setting things right. We have thousands of veterans in the Calare electorate but no hubs in the Central West of New South Wales. The Bathurst and Orange RSL subbranches want to establish a hub in Bathurst and Orange with outreach hubs in smaller communities, will you meet with our local veterans and consider this proposal?

Sorry, just needed a little break to rock under my desk for a little bit.

Sussan Ley to Chris Bowen with a nice little gotcha:

But this is Bowen, who is the closest the parliament has to someone using Jedi mind powers on the daily.

‘This is not the question you are asking for’.

Bowen says:

In New South Wales the average price of these $127 it was $123. The Queensland one is 139 dollars and the average election day was $347 and 28 cents. In South Australia the average today is $125 and the average on election day was $312.30.

SO that is wholesale, obvs, and not household and Ley gets up to be like “ARE YOU HEARING THIS?’ and Milton Dick is like, ‘yes, but it’s not that deep’.

Bowen continues:

In Victoria the average household wholesale price is $126 – $183 and on election day ws $233.

…Perhaps I could say, Mr Speaker, we on the side of the house agree that Australians have looked and will continue to look to the government to do more to assist on household energy bills. The work is far from done, we delivered three rounds of energy bill relief but we recognise that around the world, including in Australia, our prices hit higher than anyone would like.

But is why we have taken such action. That is why for example I announced a very significant change to the default market offer, review to effectively change the way that the default market offer works to put Australian household at the centre to prioritise Australian households, to stop speaking price hikes by retailers so they could only be one place right here to prevent customers from because more than standard offer price at their initial low-cost offer changes.

That is what – the sort of thing we did last term and will continue to do this term. It is true the Australian people knew what we took to the 2022 election and they knew what we did in the last term and the challenges we face with global headlines, they knew that they cost judgement on May 3.

The Leader of the Opposition said at the last election and I quote, I am very happy for the election to be a referendum on energy, nuclear power prices, on who has a sustainable pathway for our country going forward, that is what the band Leader of the Opposition called for.

It got paid across the country including several occasions in my own electorate, I campaigned in his electorate to be fair and I was satisfied with the result of both. I was satisfied with the resultant both because the people had a choice, in fact, we expect that result, we accept it with humility and I encourage those opposite to do the same.

Sigh.

The Coalition still don’t know where to go. So they are going back to the top hits of 2022.

Sussan Ley:

Can the Prime Minister explain why 63,000 more Australian families are on hardship assistance arrangements for their power bills today than on the day Labor took office three years ago?

That is not to say that people are not experiencing hardship – of course they are. But what is the Coalition proposing as a solution here? Because they have no energy policy, and the vibes of the energy policy they are pushing (also known as Barnaby Joyce: the redux) would INCREASE power prices.

I feel like Selena Meyer.

The stampede to the Canberra airport will begin as soon as question time ends, so we will probably see them get straight into it today.

Let’s see.

Former Productivity Commissioner, Peter Harris, suggested in the AFR that we implement a fee on electrical vehicles. He argues this would make the system fairer. Currently, the fuel excise, which applies to petrol and diesel, generates the revenue that supposedly goes to the upkeep and upgrading of roads, while EV owners don’t pay that excise.

Although Harris recognises that this linkage is actually weak; and that earmarking a particular revenue stream for a specific purpose is generally not a good idea, he declares such a linkage is necessary in this case to give “confidence among those paying that they will get what they are paying for.”

Why is road use so different? Harris doesn’t explain. There are many things that the government provides which aren’t charged to a member of the public according to usage, if at all: take public parks, emergency services, police, consular services, and footpaths (not to mention Australia’s iconic beeping pedestrian crossing buttons).

But Australians don’t seem to worry about fairness or funding there, and rightly so.

If we were talking about fairness, it’s worth remembering that petrol cars produce emissions, which the fuel excise was never equipped to address (since it all goes to roads, as Harris would have it). However fuel-efficient a petrol or diesel engine vehicle is, it produces greenhouse gas, as well as harmful chemicals from its exhaust, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Would Harris recommend a “childrens’ breathing fund levy”?

Certainly, as EVs increasingly replace internal combustion engine vehicles, revenue from the fuel excise will decline. But the government can find the money from plenty of other revenue sources to maintain roads. In general, we should tax what we want less of, and subsidise what we want more of.

As Australia Institute research shows, the public is generally quite open to buying EVs, but cost remains the greatest concern. This would not be helped by imposing additional burdens on EV users for driving these zero-emission vehicles, especially as the cost-of-living crisis continues.

Given the urgency of climate action, the desirability of reducing air pollution, and the security that would come from reducing our reliance on oil imports, the government can further encourage people to adopt EV. Australia Institute research has outlined ways the government increase EVs’ affordability and accessibility.

We are now in the downhill slide into QT for the last time this sitting.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA – that is me already sliding into the abyss.

Go and live life for me.

The Property Council is kinda happy with the slight uptick in dwelling approvals:

Australia has approved 54,156 fewer homes than needed in the first year of the Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029, but new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) approvals data released today shows signs of solid improvements.

According to ABS data, a total of 185,844 homes were approved across FY24/25, in original terms. This is fewer than the 240,000 homes we need to approve at a minimum each financial year to hit our targets.

However, this is 22,152 higher than the previous financial year, a 13.5 per cent increase.

There has also been a rise in the number of apartment approvals, with 42,387 new apartment dwellings approved in the FY24/25. This is a 42.1 per cent rise from 29,826 in 2023-24.