Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to express my sympathy for the decent members of the Australian Labor Party who are here in this chamber today. They know that they were elected to office on the back of a promise to cut power bills for households by $275. It wouldn't be easy for them, as it is not easy for any federal MP, to see their own constituents and businesses struggle in the face of rising power prices and despite that promise. But something has happened, and we have now seen a budget from the government that has revealed that the $275 promise is flawed. What's more, we have now seen the relevant department actually disassociate itself from that very modelling by removing reference to it from its website.

And so, despite my sympathy for those opposite, they now have an opportunity. Every Labor Party MP in this chamber, as of now—since the budget and since the department's revelation—has a choice to make. They can either peddle the falsehood of their leadership team about power prices or they can tell the truth to the very people and businesses who they're meant to serve in this place. The choice is theirs! (Time expired)

See this speech in context