Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, it's been budget week, and budget weeks are usually very interesting weeks in this chamber and this building, because a government of the day paints its vision about its plans for Australia moving forward and the solutions that it sees to the problems we face, while giving Australians an idea about what those are. This week, this budget has been the no hope, no solutions budget. It's been brought down by a Treasurer who, really, has been known as 'Mr Misery' since he's taken over as Treasurer, because he's been talking down our economy and talking down our communities, in the sense of what's going on, ever since the day he took over. There's no grand plan in this budget either.

There were a number of disappointments in the budget, and I think the major one would be what we're talking about today. As is well known, one of the core promises of the then opposition, now government, was that they were going to lower power prices by $275 a year. Not only did they say that, they said it on many occasions. I've got a quote here from the now defence minister, who talked about the 'rigorous modelling' and said that it was some of 'the most extensive modelling that any opposition had ever done'. So this wasn't just a figure plucked out of thin air. This was a promise of a $275 lowering of electricity prices. And, to quote again from the now Minister for Defence, he said that it was, 'rigorous modelling' and 'the most extensive modelling that any opposition had ever done'. So this wasn't an off-the-cuff thing.

What we found out in this budget, this week, is that, instead of power prices going down by $275 a year, they're actually going to go up. If you look at the percentage that they say prices are going to go up by, it will be equivalent to an increase of about $1,000 a year for a family. They said prices were going to go down by $275; they're actually going to go up by $1,000. This is a great betrayal of the Australian people, by this new government. Of course, they don't own that. They don't say, 'Gee, we got that wrong.' They make up excuses. One of their great excuses is the Ukraine war. A message to the government: the Ukraine war was going before they came into government. The supply issues and the disruption of the Ukraine war weren't something that happened after they came into government; they were going on before they came into government.

In fact, there were many members and ministers in the new government who were still saying, after they came into government, that they were going to lower prices by $275. The Prime Minister has been well quoted on all the times that he talked about it. The Treasurer, Dr Chalmers, has been quoted on it. The Leader of the House, Tony Burke, was quoted on it. The Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, was quoted saying the same things. Again, when I talk about Mr Marles, the Minister for Defence, he was saying there was rigorous modelling. To now blame the Ukraine war is hypocritical. Sure, if they came into government and the Ukraine war started afterwards and caused some issues, they might say that, but the Ukraine war started well before they came into government.

When energy prices and electricity bills go up like this, what happens? It means that inflation goes up. Because of what they're not doing, energy bills go up and inflation goes up. That is why this cost-of-living pressure is accentuating. When inflation goes up, what else is going up? Interest rates are going up. An even bigger cost to people's and families' cost-of-living pressures is not energy prices; it would actually be, for those who have a mortgage, the interest rate pressures they're feeling with their mortgage costs going up as well. Again, this is really this new government's former prime minister Julia Gillard moment, when she said:

There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.

We all remember that. Of course, she then legislated one. With this government, it's, 'We're going to lower your power bills by $275,' which has been a complete betrayal of the Australian people in what they've done in the context of that.

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