Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

Not according to Hogan—it was 'throw another shrimp on the barbie'—but thanks, Treasurer. It would be nice if you could lower power prices and do something about it in the budget, rather than recall parliament, at a cost of over a million bucks.

This is a big issue, because what it shows is that the Prime Minister can't be trusted. This is a broken election promise, and the Albanese government cannot be trusted, and the people of Queensland need to know that. The other thing is that, if you reduce power prices for 10 million households by $275, that is a $2.75 billion reduction. But, instead, we're getting increases in power prices by 50 per cent. And now the government is bringing in some package that we know nothing about that will invest $1½ billion—so less than $2.90 a household per week—and we don't even know where it's going. Is it going to the states? Is it going to all households? How will that actually reduce power prices? The reality is that it won't. What will happen is that power prices will increase by 50 per cent in the next two years, and do we really believe that somehow they will then decrease by 50 per cent because of this legislation that will be passed today, with the support of the Greens? No. Labor need the support of the Greens in the Senate, and they have done a midnight-hour deal with the Greens to actually get this legislation through.

This is not good for the people of Petrie at all. I'm concerned that what you'll see for the people of Petrie, the people of Queensland and the people of Australia is increased power prices despite this bill being rushed through, recalling the parliament at a cost of over a million dollars.

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