Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are in the fifth year of this government, and we are in the fifth year of an energy policy fiasco. What have we seen? They promised a $550 cut to power prices. Instead, they've jacked it up by $1,000! And guess what else has happened? They've shut down seven coal-fired power stations—seven!—Redbank, Morwell, Wallerawang, Anglesea, Northern, Playford and Hazelwood. There have been 4,000 megawatts of coal-fired power gone under their watch. I have a message for the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister: being mates with Gina Rinehart doesn't make you friends of coalminers. Not many coalminers get free trips to India on Gina's private jet. Not many coalminers get to go to the $40,000 a year Riverview private school. I say to the Prime Minister that a $1,000 increase in electricity bills might not be much to him in Point Piper but it means a lot to the people in my constituency. It means a lot to every single constituency over here. I have another message for the Prime Minister: stop blaming others, own up to the fact that seven coal-fired power stations have closed under your watch, take responsibility and start acting like an adult government for once.

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