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Why Chris Bowen is Labor’s least-loved minister · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, November twenty five, twenty twenty five. Former Senator
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown
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  Speaker 1: want compensation from the Commonwealth for false allegations leveled by
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  Speaker 1: Brittany Higgins, they say ruined their careers, but the Greens
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  Speaker 1: think Reynolds should donate any payout to charity and TEARMP
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  Speaker 1: Zalie Stegel says anyone who questions the handling of Higgins's
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  Speaker 1: claim is guilty of continued harassment of a rape victim.
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  Speaker 1: Energy giant AGL must try a lot harder to help
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  Speaker 1: workers affected by the clean energy transition to get new jobs.
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  Speaker 1: That's a ruling by the Fair Work Commission in a
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  Speaker 1: case brought by the government's Net zero authority. The Commission
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  Speaker 1: agreed agl's promise of a five thousand dollars assistance package
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  Speaker 1: for each employee was enough. Those stories alive right now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au. He's the most
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  Speaker 1: unpopular minister in the federal government, but Chris Bowen has
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  Speaker 1: the giant job of selling labour's progas anti fossil energy
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  Speaker 1: policy and explaining why power bills are still sky high.
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  Speaker 1: He might have inadvertently also just handled embattled Opposition leader
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  Speaker 1: Susan Lee a lifeline today the man who cuts through
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  Speaker 1: the noise of politics to make it all clear and
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  Speaker 1: give us a laugh. Dennis Shanahan Order, Order, Order. The
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  Speaker 1: last week of Parliament is a bit like the last
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  Speaker 1: week of school. Look, I know it's order. Everyone's hot
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  Speaker 1: and cranky.
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  Speaker 2: We're not going anywhere until everyone remember for Bruce.
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  Speaker 1: It is ward Speaker Milton Dick is on the edge
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  Speaker 1: of canceling the class picnic and putting a complete ban
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  Speaker 1: on water fights.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's the last week. I'm just going to
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  Speaker 2: ask the Deputy Prime Minister to temporary his language.
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  Speaker 1: And he has eight seconds left. One kid in the
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  Speaker 1: front row has already stopped showing up.
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  Speaker 3: I'm from the House that the Minister for Climate Change
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  Speaker 3: and Energy will be absolent from question time today. What
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  Speaker 3: a treasure will answer questions on his behalf would answer
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  Speaker 3: for emergency management.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor. Dennis, the Minister
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  Speaker 1: for Climate Change and Energy, wasn't in question time to
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  Speaker 1: kick off the last week of Parliament for the year.
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  Speaker 4: Where was he, Well, we think he was somewhere in
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  Speaker 4: the air or on the ground in South America. It
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  Speaker 4: was a very bad look for the government. Here was
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  Speaker 4: Chris Bowen just appointed as the COP President, who's going
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  Speaker 4: to be handling the negotiations for all of the climate
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  Speaker 4: change over the next twelve months. The argument is that
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  Speaker 4: there's no need for him to give up his job
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  Speaker 4: as a minister. He can do both and it won't
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  Speaker 4: interfere with his attention because he is the Minister for
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  Speaker 4: Energy as to trying to keep down prices for Australian voters.
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  Speaker 4: And what happened, he wasn't there and he's not going
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  Speaker 4: to be there on Wednesday either.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 4: The Minister's tried to shift and shuffle along to try
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  Speaker 4: and hide that gap on the front bench, but the
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  Speaker 4: Opposition didn't miss it and plenty of questions went to
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  Speaker 4: that empty space marked Chris Bowen.
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  Speaker 2: The Prime Minister has said the Minister for Energy will
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  Speaker 2: have quote unprecedented influence in global climate negotiations as the
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  Speaker 2: president of COP thirty one negotiations. Why isn't this part
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  Speaker 2: time minister full time president? Using this unprecedented influence to
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  Speaker 2: lower energy bills for Australians. And Prime Minister, by what
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  Speaker 2: date will the average household power bill be lower than
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  Speaker 2: it is today? Call to the Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 3: I think the Leader of the Opposition for the question
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  Speaker 3: and I can imagine question time tactics this morning, because
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  Speaker 3: there's about five different questions.
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  Speaker 2: In what.
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  Speaker 1: You've been very harsh on the coalition's parliamentary tactics and
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  Speaker 1: the standard of their questions. What did you think on Monday?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I thought that while the performance by the coalition team,
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  Speaker 4: particularly by Susan Lee, they weren't the best performance of
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty five, they weren't the worst performance of twenty
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  Speaker 4: twenty five, but I think they'll be the most important,
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  Speaker 4: particular for the Leader of the Opposition. It was on
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  Speaker 4: the day, on the sitting day, when the Government had
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  Speaker 4: hoped that this would be its big culmination to the
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  Speaker 4: year and six months of division within the coalition over
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  Speaker 4: its dumping of the net zero for twenty fifty target,
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  Speaker 4: and instead it turned back on the government because Bowen
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  Speaker 4: liked a man on the stair, wasn't there?
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  Speaker 1: How much of Chris Bowen's personality is relevant here? Dennis.
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  Speaker 1: He's got cot a sharp tongue. He famously said a
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  Speaker 1: couple of elections ago, if you don't like Labour's policies,
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  Speaker 1: don't vote for us, and voters didn't. He perhaps is
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  Speaker 1: not the best person to explain a complex policy to
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  Speaker 1: people who are annoyed about their power bills. Is there
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  Speaker 1: something good for the government about him not necessarily being
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  Speaker 1: there all the time?
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  Speaker 4: Well, for a start, he is the most unpopular minister
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  Speaker 4: in the Labor government, no doubt about that, and that's
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  Speaker 4: partly because he does have a brusk approach. He doesn't
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  Speaker 4: consult at ground level. We've seen even one of his
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  Speaker 4: fellow ministers complaining that in her electorate he didn't consult
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  Speaker 4: her as the local member all the constituents about a
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  Speaker 4: big renewable plan in her electorate. So what we've seen
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  Speaker 4: is he has a crash or crashed through approach, very
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  Speaker 4: whitlam esque. He is brusque and this does not work
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  Speaker 4: well on the ground. We've seen revolts on the north
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  Speaker 4: coast of New South Wales southern Victoria where people have
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  Speaker 4: complained he didn't consult them about wind turbines and programs
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  Speaker 4: for renewable energy and so this all plays into it,
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  Speaker 4: and the fact that he is also the Minister for
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  Speaker 4: Energy as well as climate change, that he has to
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  Speaker 4: then try and tell people and explain to people that
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  Speaker 4: their energy bills are meant to be going down, and
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  Speaker 4: keeps saying it's cheaper, it's cheaper. You know you've got cheaper.
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  Speaker 4: No one reading their power bill believes that.
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  Speaker 1: What are the complicated ideas that Labor now needs to
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  Speaker 1: explain to Australians who are annoyed about power prices is
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  Speaker 1: that gas is kind of the fossil fuel, that's not
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  Speaker 1: really a fossil fuel. You know that it's emissions are
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  Speaker 1: much much lower, that it's very important to the transition
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  Speaker 1: to a clean energy future. As they would say, how
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  Speaker 1: do you think they're going explaining that.
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  Speaker 4: Well, this is the crux of their problem because on
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  Speaker 4: the same weekend when Chris Bowen was signing up as
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  Speaker 4: the new COP president, a new cop on the beat
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  Speaker 4: saying yes, we are going to have a fossil fuel
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  Speaker 4: free future that's four FS and that it's going to
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  Speaker 4: come really at the cost of consumers. Now, that's what
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  Speaker 4: he was saying in South America, while in South Africa,
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  Speaker 4: the Prime Minister was saying, oh, no, we need gas,
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  Speaker 4: and he's taken steps to extend gas production in Australia
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  Speaker 4: through to twenty seventy. He also, when asked or was
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  Speaker 4: there going to be a change to Australia's coal exports
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  Speaker 4: or production, one word answer no. So on the one hand,
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  Speaker 4: we have the new president of kop and the Energy
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  Speaker 4: Minister in Australia saying we are going to have a
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  Speaker 4: fossil free future, no coal, no gas. Now, no one
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  Speaker 4: thinks anyone can move, no matter where they are, can
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  Speaker 4: move immediately to a fossil free future. So here is
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  Speaker 4: a problem. The Prime Minister, though, is now using a
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  Speaker 4: different language. He's talking about the cheapest new energy. He
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  Speaker 4: doesn't say it's the cheapest energy, he says the cheapest
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  Speaker 4: new energy. We have a real difference in approach from
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  Speaker 4: the Minister for Energy and the Prime Minister. And what
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  Speaker 4: we are seeing is for once the coalition actually getting
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  Speaker 4: over its division, getting over its policy fight, and exploiting
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  Speaker 4: that conflict of a position between the Prime Minister and
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  Speaker 4: the Energy Minister and the Energy's internal conflict about where
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  Speaker 4: does he concentrate, where does he put his focus?
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  Speaker 1: Coming up Anthony Albanese is a groom to be, so
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  Speaker 1: what will the Coalition be giving him as a wedding gift? Well,
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  Speaker 1: the rest of us are getting ready for the Christmas season,
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  Speaker 1: eating a lot of mince pies. The Prime Minister presumably
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  Speaker 1: will be shredding for his wedding. Dennis, he's got a
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  Speaker 1: summer wedding ceremony coming up to his partner Jodie. What's
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  Speaker 1: the best gift do you think Susan Lee can give
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  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister and what will he be hoping for?
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  Speaker 1: Is it that Susan Lee hangs on or that someone
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  Speaker 1: rumbles her?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think that the Prime Minister has the view that,
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  Speaker 4: as Jeff Chambers wrote in The Australian, that if Susan
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  Speaker 4: Lee was a Labor leader, she would have already been removed,
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  Speaker 4: that Labor wouldn't have tolerated her. I think that the
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  Speaker 4: sitting so far this week has ensured that she'll get
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  Speaker 4: through to Christmas. But as far as what does he
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  Speaker 4: want from the Liberal leadership, I think his view is
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  Speaker 4: he's quite happy with Susan Lee to stay there, but
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  Speaker 4: he also thinks that if there was a change to
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  Speaker 4: Angus Taylor or to Andrew hasty. It would actually be
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  Speaker 4: worse for the coalition and better for Anthony Alberenese and
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  Speaker 4: the Labor Government. I don't think the options, or certainly
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  Speaker 4: Anthony Alberenese doesn't think the options out there at the moment,
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  Speaker 4: are going to make any great difference to the difficulties
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  Speaker 4: the coalition faces. And I think that the sitting, improvement
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  Speaker 4: in the parliamentary tactics, improvement in the asking of questions,
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  Speaker 4: and the continued tolerance of the Speaker has allowed them
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  Speaker 4: to get back or at least to stop the sink.
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  Speaker 4: They have stopped that sinking into the mire and the
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  Speaker 4: shifting sand. That's the best the Coalition has done in
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  Speaker 4: Parliament for months.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor. Learning about politics
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  Speaker 1: through Dennis's eyes is always enlightening and usually really funny.
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  Speaker 1: You can check out his analysis all the work by
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  Speaker 1: our incredible team of political journalists anytime at The Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot au