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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker—including a thank you for your ruling. It's a reminder to all of us to be very mindful of the importance of dates in this place.

I start this MPI by reflecting on the date of 3 December 2021, for that was the day the Labor Party launched its Powering Australia plan. That was the date when the now Prime Minister first made his promise to reduce household power bills by $275. That promise—broken. On 5 December 2021, in making Labor's 'Plan for a Better Future' speech, the now Prime Minister promised the Australian people that household power bills would be reduced by $275; that promise is broken. On 9 March 2022, the now Prime Minister, in a speech to the AFR at its 'new platform for growth' conference, promised the Australian people that household power bills would be reduced by $275. That promise—broken. On 1 May 2022, the now Prime Minister promised the Australian people he would reduce power prices for households by $275; that promise is broken. On 7 May 2022, the now Prime Minister promised at another Labor launch that they would reduce power prices for Australian households by $275; that promise has since been broken. On 18 May 2022, at the National Press Club, the now Prime Minister made it very clear to the Australian people that he had a solid bond with them, and he made a promise to reduce household power bills by $275; that promise has since been broken.

You see, Deputy Speaker Claydon, dates do matter, and so, too, do promises. All I've rattled off here is half a dozen of the times when the Prime Minister and the Labor Party had promised the Australian people to reduce household power bills by $275. On 97 occasions this promise was made to the Australian people. It's not just the Prime Minister who is at fault here; every single member of the Labor Party who sits opposite is at fault and is guilty of breaking this promise. Every single Labor Party MP and candidate went to the last election promising constituents in their electorates that their household power bills would come down by $275. Every single time they made that promise, they were making a promise that would not be delivered—a promise that, instead, would be broken. Yet we have question after question from the coalition put to the Prime Minister during question time, raising issues on behalf of constituents—families that are struggling, small businesses that are struggling—asking the Prime Minister if he will commit to the $275 promise. But the Prime Minister refuses to make that commitment. He won the election of the back of that promise and now he is breaking the hearts of Australian households and their budgets by breaking that very promise.

Every single Labor MP that is going to stand up as a part of this debate and try and defend their record, try and defend their Prime Minister, is standing up as part of a protection racket, trying to protect a prime minister who has told an untruth to the Australian people. He sits here at every single question time and seeks to bat away questions that come on behalf of constituents, on behalf of Australian families, who are amidst a cost-of-living crisis today. This prime minister is completely removed, completely out of touch, and the protection racket no doubt will continue over the next 20, 30 or 40 minutes as Labor MPs come up and try to defend the fact that they broke a promise of a $275 reduction in household power bills.

The Prime Minister is from New South Wales. There are parts of New South Wales that, by the end of next financial year, will have seen their average power bill go up by $933 since the Prime Minister made that promise.

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