Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

You are saying that the Labor Party are choosing the big energy companies over the energy customers—households, mums, dads, pensioners—of this country. We're not afraid to say we will take a big stick to the energy companies. We're not afraid to say we will put this legislation in the parliament. We're not afraid to say we will put these powers in place to even up the score for electricity customers. What I do know is that the Labor Party will continue to oppose this legislation. They do not want the powers introduced into this parliament that will enable us to even up the score for customers. As a result, they will run away with the energy companies and coalesce with them and cuddle up to them.

But I can tell you that our government won't. When we have met with the electricity companies we've had one simple message: drop your prices; bring them down. That's what the Australian people want. That's what their customers want. As their profits have increased, their prices have increased for their customers. We don't think that's fair, and we think it should change. We're going to introduce legislation into this parliament which puts pressure on the energy companies to do the right thing by their customers. The Labor Party are going to oppose it. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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