Tucker Carlson was dismayed to hear about Australia’s rising energy bills, despite the country’s wealth of natural resources.
According to the former Fox News host, the high price Australian families paid was due to the export of iron ore and coal to China.
The right-wing commentator claimed Australia was selling coal to China to make renewable energy, which “we then buy back” and slammed the Albanian government.
“Whoever came up with that, you hate,” he said at the Melbourne Convention Centre on Monday night as part of the Australian Freedom Conferences tour.
‘It’s not like the accountants at the parliament building one day look at the books and think: ‘All those estimates we had about wind farms, they’re just not right’.
“That we sell our country’s raw materials to a distant country to make something that doesn’t work and pay extra for it,” he claimed.
“The fact that your energy costs are high is reason enough for you to fire the people who run your country.”
Tucker Carlson is stunned after discovering how high Australia’s energy bills are, despite its wealth of natural resources
Nearly all solar panels in Australia come from overseas, with the majority made in China.
Chinese investors also own two of Australia’s largest energy companies.
Energy Australia, which has 1.7 million customers, is owned by China Light and Power Company after it was sold by the New South Wales government for $1.4 billion in 2011.
And Alinta Energy, which has 1.1 million customers, was sold by its private owners to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises in 2017 for $4 billion.
Although neither Energy Australia nor Alinta distributes electricity, they are both energy producers and sellers. They both own significant assets such as coal-fired power stations, solar farms and wind farms.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also dismayed by the high cost of electricity in Australia, according to a 2017 interview that has recently resurfaced.
“Wow, really?” he said in disbelief when 60 Minutes host Liz Hayes told him that electricity had become a “luxury item” for many families.
“I didn’t realise it was that expensive. Australia has so many natural resources that even if you go down the fossil fuel route, electricity should be very cheap,” he says.
His shock turned to sadness when he heard that many people were worried about not being able to turn on the lights or cook food.
“I didn’t expect that,” he said, his voice trembling, then paused for a long moment.
“We will work harder,” Musk said, implying he hoped to make electricity cheaper for Australians using Tesla technology.
Energy bills rose 6.5 percent in the year to May, ahead of inflation, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The increase prompted the Albanian government to introduce a $300 energy bill rebate for all Australian households to combat rising living costs.
Starting July 1, households will automatically receive a $300 discount on their electricity bill, while one million small businesses will receive a $325 discount on their bill.
Critics have criticised the measure, arguing that such discounts only reduce competitive pressure on energy companies to lower their prices and could contribute to further price increases.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also shocked at how expensive electricity was in Australia
Meanwhile, inflation rose to four percent in the year to May, from 3.6 percent the previous month, prompting NAB analysts to warn that any rate cut could be delayed until after May next year.
During his trip Down Under, Carlson also addressed Australia’s housing crisis, which he believes is a result of immigration.
Carlson admitted he was shocked to learn how expensive it was to buy a house in Sydney, even in suburbs far from the harbour.
He said he was looking into house prices because he was considering buying property in Australia, but he soon found out that even someone with his bank account could not realistically afford a house in Australia.
“It was so much more than I can afford and I have a decent job,” he told the crowd.
“How can anyone live here?”
He said that when he asked a Sydney resident the question, he was told that many had left the city altogether or become homeless.
“I thought, that sounds like a crisis,” Carlson added.
‘Why is this happening? Immigration. There is only one reason and that is the reason.
“But nobody wants to say it like that, because it sounds like an attack on immigrants. And that’s how they shut you up. They say, ‘Shut up, racist.’”
Carlson said he was generally positive about immigration, but that if there wasn’t enough housing for the growing population, prices would rise quickly.
“If it becomes too expensive for your children to buy a house in the country where they were born, then you are erased, that’s it. Your line ends and that’s what happens,” he said.
“If your children can’t afford a home here, there’s one person you can blame: the people running your government.”
The average house price in Sydney of $1.466 million is 12 times the average full-time salary of $98,218, even with a 20 percent deposit. A record 547,300 migrants entered Australia last year.