TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 14 November 2025

NATALIE BARR, HOST: The Liberals have official dumped their net zero by 2050 policy, pledging to wind back the Albanese Government’s climate goals and deliver cheaper energy bills for Australian households.
 
[Excerpt]
 
OPPOSITION LEADER SUSSAN LEY: I can look Australians in the eye and say that prices will always be more affordable under us.
 
[End of excerpt]
 
BARR: There was no detail on when or by how much bills will drop, although the party committed to funding all energy technologies, such as coal, gas, nuclear and solar. For their take, let’s bring in Liberals Senator Jane Hume and Health Minister Mark Butler.
 
Good morning to both of you. Jane, we’ll start with you. You spoke in favour of net zero at the meeting this week. How do you now turn around, do a bit of a U-ey and sell a policy that’s ditched net zero all together?
 
SENATOR JANE HUME: Nat, the Liberals certainly haven't backed away from reducing emissions. They've simply said that they are going to deliver affordable, more reliable energy, at the same time taking a responsible approach to delivering our commitments to the Paris Agreement. Because we know that under Labor, their approach has seen energy prices rise, rise by about 40 per cent just in the last three years alone. And because energy is the economy, businesses are going out of businesses and households are struggling to pay their bills. We simply can do both. We just have to make sure that we take a responsible path to doing that.
 
BARR: Sounds good, Jane. So you are backing coal, renewables, nuclear, gas, solar, long-duration batteries and you're going to make everything cheaper and you're going to reduce emissions. That sounds amazing. Not many people would argue against that. Have you crunched the figures?
 
HUME: Nat, what we've committed to is a technologically agnostic approach. Why shouldn't everything be on the table in order to both deliver affordable energy and reduce emissions? That makes logical sense. It's the reason why I introduced a bill myself to lift the moratorium on nuclear energy, because it's simply crazy that we have 19 of the richest countries in the world that are now delivering cheaper energy using nuclear technology, but Australia's failed to do so. And that's because of the ideological approach that Labor have taken.
 
BARR: Okay, so how much and when, though? Sounds great, but how much and when, Jane?
 
HUME: Well, the most important thing now is that we return a coalition government back onto those government benches, because unless there's a coalition government there, your bills will keep rising and emissions will stagnate. Because, let's face it, under Labor, not only have your bills gone up, but emissions have flatlined. They're not delivering on either of their promises to deliver cheaper energy or reduce emissions.
 
BARR: OK. Mark, your government, the Prime Minister, has called this a clown show. People are getting sick of high power bills, waiting for the renewables to kick in.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: I can't believe we're back here, Nat. It goes without saying this is a decision of extraordinary environmental irresponsibility and will be a shock to people who care about climate action. It sends a terrible message to our region, Pacific neighbours, for whom climate change is an existential threat and who are so important to our strategic security.
 
But the extraordinary thing about yesterday was the depth of economic irresponsibility. The lesson the Liberal Party appears to have taken from the last election is we need to be more like Barnaby Joyce. Scott Morrison finally ripped control away from Barnaby Joyce over economic and energy policy, and he made the commitment to net zero by 2050. Not our government, it was the Morrison Government. Peter Dutton stuck by it. He wasn't willing to give Barnaby Joyce back control over energy policy.
 
But in an act of abject weakness yesterday, Sussan Ley and the Liberal Party have gone back to the bad old days where business groups, economic commentators had no rules, no guide to the investment we need them to make to renew our energy grid. Our energy grid is 40 or 50 years old. It is shutting down now. Not in the 2040s for Jane Hume’s nuclear policy. It is shutting down now, and every single business group has their head in their hands this morning because they need some clear rules to guide the investment we need for a new energy grid.
 
HUME: But you're making Australian families and businesses pay the price for that, Mark. That's foolish. We don't need to mandate or legislate those targets. We can do both in a sensible and affordable and responsible way.
 
BARR: Well, we haven't seen any figures from you, Jane, and Mark, we don't know any timelines from you on when our power bills are coming down. So we're stuck in the middle, I guess.
 
BUTLER: What we need is more energy in the system. That's what we need, more energy in the system -
 
HUME: I couldn’t agree with you more.
 
BUTLER: That is what will start to bring bills down -
 
HUME: More gas.
 
BUTLER: Because the coal plants are shutting down today. They're shutting down today.
 
BARR: Okay. Look, we've run out of time. Thank you very much for both sides of the story.