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

In Labor, we have the government of broken promises. Last week, it was a broken promise about superannuation. This week, a broken promise will probably be confirmed about 24/7 registered nurses in aged-care homes.

This motion doesn't go to those sorts of broken promises; this motion goes to probably the first of the Albanese Labor government's many broken promises. That was when Albanese and his colleagues looked the Australian people in the eye—no less than 97 times before the last federal election—and promised them that household power bills would be reduced by $275. That was their promise. It was not an ad hoc statement made by the then opposition leader, but a well calculated promise that they made on multiple occasions.

Even upon coming to government, at this very table, no matter how many times we in the opposition have asked the Prime Minister to confirm that he cannot deliver on that promise, he does not do so, because he wants to still stand by that broken promise of a cut of $275 to people's power bills. Since the government has come to office, what has happened to the household power bill? Has it gone down by $275, as promised by the Albanese Labor government? No, it has not. Average household power bills have gone up—have gone up!—by over $700. That's right. They promised they would go down by $275, but they have gone up by over $700. That's nearly a $1,000 difference. This government set an expectation by making a promise on household energy bills. They are not even a year in, and the extent of that variation is $1,000 a household. It's nearly $1,000 per Australian household. That is the difference between what Labor promised and what Labor is delivering.

This is because Labor is going back to their natural instinct: the instinct of big government and big taxes. As soon as the energy crisis started to bite, the climate and energy minister refused to meet with industry. He wanted big government to find the solution. They have botched the ADGSM. They have taken our coal and gas from the capacity mechanism. Their policies have seen a run to the exit for baseload power stations, worsening the situation and increasing prices. They have seen an unprecedented intervention by the market operator, because of reliability issues, and the price is again going up. They've come in with a price cap, which is suffocating the supply of gas in the market. You suffocate and you restrict gas at a time when people need more of it. Prices go up, and they wonder why prices keep going up.

Those opposite are asking me not to talk out loud about the $275. I don't blame them. In fact, I feel sorry for the member for Dunkley, whose leadership team probably asked them to come in on this motion today.

So shallow is the government on their own agenda that they have their backbench now bringing forward motions celebrating broken promises. I tell you what, Deputy Speaker—I wonder if those in government had been on the shop floors of businesses who are suffering from high energy prices. I have. I can promise you, in those businesses, as they stand around the management table and as they are on the shop floor with the workers, they're not putting forward motions celebrating this government's broken promise of lower power bills. That's not happening. I can tell you, too, that I have sat out the kitchen table, especially with seniors who are struggling to make ends meet. They look at this government, and they're not putting their hands up and saying, 'Let's celebrate the Labor government—a government that promised us a $275 reduction in our household power bills.' Instead, they're saying, 'We are choosing whether we eat or whether we heat our homes.' That is a disgrace, and that is Labor's legacy. They've only just begun.

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