Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker, this is outrageous. I haven't even gone past the first page of my speech notes because of the constant interjections. But, as I was saying, the weather station that records the temperature in the Western Sydney area is located next to the lake system, which is obviously going to record the temperature at a much lower rate than anywhere else. We've got the heat island effect out there. Anybody who lives in Glenmore Park, Jordan Springs or the new development of Thornton will know that it is up to three degrees hotter than anywhere else in Western Sydney.

When we talk about an energy crisis, you can appreciate how hot it gets and how much we are relying on power to cool our homes and also swimming pools so that people can actually cool down. But what gets Western Sydney residents very hot is this incompetent government's energy crisis. Day after day we come in here looking for answers from those opposite, and all they can do is blame us. Well, I've got some news for them: they are in government; they've had the opportunity to fix it. To continue to come in here and blame Labor for something that may or may not have taken place four or five years ago is their incompetence on display on a grand scale.

They've let this problem fester and get to the point where it is now. The time has come though; summer is now on our doorstep. It is 35 degrees today in Western Sydney. It's the 13th day of spring and it's already 35 degrees. The rise of blackouts this summer will be higher than ever before and the residents of Western Sydney have had enough. They've had to swallow the lies and the nasty policies from those opposite and promises of electricity prices going down by $550. They're not idiots. They're not stupid. They know that their prices have gone up and are up to $1,000 higher. And this government has taken away the energy supplements paid to people who can least afford it. This is an outrage, an absolute blight on a government that will leave no track record other than destruction. Take that, Calare! It's a disgrace.

See this speech in context