Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about a matter of public importance, the rising cost of living and Labor's scuttling of its own promise to cut power bills by $275. During the election campaign Mr Albanese visited my electorate of Dawson, in January this year, where he told local media outlets that Labor's emissions plan would see, 'a reduction in power bills, on average, of $275 by 2025'.

Labor says it was elected on a promise to create jobs, cut power bills and reduce emissions. We all know what has happened to the second part of that promise. The commitment to cut power bills is dead in the water. There is a gaping hole in the Climate Change Bill—no mention of power prices. The Prime Minister has sat on the commitment he made in my Mackay electorate in January for six months knowing that he could not keep it.

It gets worse. Labor made this commitment to the electricity consumers 15 times before election day. The Prime Minister finally confirmed he could not keep his promise in his first question time, making it clear to all Australians that this government cannot be trusted. The Albanese government is more committed to playing politics than easing the cost-of-living pressures on Australians. It goes downhill from there.

The concessions this government has made to the Greens will be ruinous for the economy. At the time of rising inflation, rising interest rates and rising living costs Labor's restrictions on the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility, Export Finance Australia and Infrastructure Australia will make it hard, if not impossible, for these agencies to recommend or provide finance and insurance projects in the energy, resources and agricultural sectors.

This is on top of the government's decision to back-pedal on its ill-advised move to scrap the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia. You know that the decision is wrong. The resources that come out of the North are the lifeblood of the Australian economy. How is this government going to fund the roads and infrastructure if it keeps squeezing the life out of the North and denying it's funding for energy, resource and agriculture products that are so vital for our export earnings? This will also deny finance to provide important regional infrastructure projects, upgrades to the freight corridors. Ports and gas pipelines will have to go begging because they won't be able to get finance. The Prime Minister promised he would not ban coal and gas projects, but that is exactly what he's doing by denying them finance. A ban by stealth is still a ban.

The Prime Minister is selling out Australians in regional areas like my electorate of Dawson. Investment in jobs will simply disappear. We have already seen power prices in the National Electricity Market more than double, and in some cases triple, compared to the same time last year. On top of that, we have a Treasurer who admits life is going to get harder and more expensive, but Australians will just have to grin and bear it. If Australians think the cost of living is high now wait until we have the government that cannot afford to pay its bills, because it is cutting off the flow of money from the North. And when it runs out Labor will just go back to its tired old playbook—raising taxes.

Unlike the coalition, this government has no plan to address rising cost-of-living pressures for the 3½ million families that have a mortgage. Our record speaks for itself. Emissions have fallen by more than 20 per cent since 2005, while our economy grew by 45 per cent. We beat our Kyoto target by 459 million tonnes. We set a credible plan to achieve— (Time expired)

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