James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity this motion provides members of the opposition with to talk about the government's record on electricity prices, the promises they took to the last election and the reality of what the implementation of that policy means to suffering families and businesses in this country as electricity costs absolutely spiral out of control on them—as do so many other cost-of-living pressures continue to put burdens on the household budget and on the small businesses that employ so many millions of Australians.

I wouldn't ordinarily give promotion to a policy position of my opponents, but I do feel compelled to commence with a little quote from the policy on electricity prices that they took to the last election. This comes from 'Powering Australia Plan: Labor's plan to create jobs, cut power bills and reduce emissions by boosting renewable energy'. It has the immortal line:

It will cut power bills for families and businesses by $275 a year for homes by 2025, compared to today.

That was in December 2021. Poor old RepuTex—I feel for that company! Reputation-RepuTex: they will rue the day that they shackled themselves to putting their name behind the modelling of that policy. But, of course, they said—and the Labor Party used their credibility—in December 2021, with all the information that everyone had freely available to them then, that when you applied all the policy positions that the Labor Party were going to put in place then the average household would have their power bill reduced by 2025, compared to December 2021, by $275. That was very clear and very straightforward. No doubt a lot of goodhearted Australians believed that the Labor Party would honour that promise, particularly when they had this really high-value modelling behind it, which made it very clear and that a solid commitment was given.

When the first budget of the government was handed down, last October, this was a budget that was very much about putting in place all the policies that the government had taken to the election, including their Powering Australia Plan. With all those policy measures put into the mix, what did the Commonwealth Treasury say about electricity prices once the Powering Australia Plan policy would be fully implemented? That they would be going up by 56 per cent. Prices would be going up by 56 per cent over two years after the Powering Australia Plan that Labor and RepuTex said would cut prices by $275 a year. Instead they'd be going up by 56 per cent. This was such a political problem for the government that they had to have an emergency drastic intervention in the market, which, by their own admission, even if it succeeds, will see power prices still going up but just by less than the disastrous 56 per cent that they put in their budget in October.

The $275 will never be spoken of by anyone opposite. They pretend that it does not exist, that they never said to people, 'Vote for us to be the government of this country and we will cut your power prices by $275.' This was a pretty significant commitment, one where a lot of families might have thought: 'Power prices are a very significant part of the household budget. They stress us. We do worry about when that bill arrives in the mail or on the email each quarter. And it does drive decision-making in our household, because if those bills are going up dramatically, we've got to cut back on other things that are important to us and our family. The Labor Party are saying, 'Under us, you'll save $275 a year.' That might have been quite appealing for those that made the reasonable but regrettable mistake of thinking that was an honest commitment that would actually occur if they voted for the Labor Party.

What has happened since then? Well, apparently, it's all someone else's fault. It's all someone else's fault, and people are meant to be grateful that the initial fear of a 56 per cent increase over two years might not be quite as high. That's the new standard of success for this government—to increase prices by 56 per cent over two years, and perhaps it will be less than that dramatic increase. Gone is the $275 cut. That is never to be spoken of again. Instead we're meant to be grateful for those dramatic increases that will still occur even if those dramatic interventions in the market are successful. We will never let people forget that promise was made and that it has not been honoured by the government.

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