Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the engagement by the crossbench and also the amendment just moved then by the honourable member. I also want to say a couple of things about the amendment moved earlier on by the member for Kooyong. The government won't be supporting the member for North Sydney's amendment, but we do have the opportunity with the six-month review of the $12 temporary cap to make sure that it's working as intended and that we've got the time frames right. Obviously around that time, as we review that cap, we will engage with the member and with other interested parties to make sure that the cap is working as it's intended.

I want to thank the member for Kooyong for the conversations that we've had about her helpful suggestion that the ACCC make public some of the advice that we've received about the arrangements for the gas industry. We weren't able to support it in the second reading amendment stage a moment ago, but we will look to provide some information from the ACCC to the public and to the member so that people can consider that on its own merits as well. I'm in discussions with the ACCC right now about the best way to facilitate that. Thank you to the member for Kooyong and the member for North Sydney for the suggestions that they've made, and also to everyone involved in the debate so far. I'm aware that this isn't a summing up, but this is the best opportunity to provide our view on a couple of the amendments that were made.

Obviously it's become clearer in the last little while that what the opposition intends to do is abandon the workers, industries, pensioners and small businesses of this country. Shortly, when the bells ring, those opposite will be voting for higher energy prices and for no household assistance for Australian families, pensioners and small businesses. The position that we heard put by those opposite is riddled with ridiculous contradiction after ridiculous contradiction. At the same time, simultaneously, those opposite have said that we should have moved quicker on this but that we're moving too fast and it needs to go off to a committee. They've said that they oppose it because they didn't have time to read it, and at the same time they're saying that they oppose it because they've read it. They come up one after another after another and say prices are too high, but they refuse to do anything about it. It is one ridiculous contradiction after another. That is for just one reason: all these excuses, all these alibis, are all about covering up for a decade of policy failure that continues today and that has the member for Hume's fingerprints all over it. The decade of failure we've seen from those opposite has left us more vulnerable to these kinds of shocks we're seeing in the international energy markets. With their vote, and with their failures over a decade in government, they have left Australians and Australian industries more vulnerable. It is left to us, working with the crossbench, to ensure we are doing what we can to take some of the edge off these high and rising prices.

Let's be clear: the Australian people expect us to act in their interests here, and they are watching. They will know who stood up for them in this place today, and they will know who sold them out.

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