Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's important that I actually read out the topic for the MPI. It's:

The Prime Minister's broken promise to cut energy bills by $275.

It was put forward by the member for Fairfax. I'm not sure the memo got to the other side. Hopefully, the other speakers will actually address the topic. I didn't hear anything about electricity or energy prices for struggling families, struggling pensioners, struggling single mothers and single fathers, and small businesses who may question whether they can still stay open. It wasn't addressed at all. Instead we got the usual slogans—slogans like 'decade of denial and delay', 'the cheapest form of energy is renewables' and 'serious action on climate change.' Those slogans aren't going to help the young families, pensioners and small businesses in my community pay their power bills. Slogans won't help. It's easy for us in this place. We're paid well. We're paid enough that we don't have to worry or sweat when the power bill comes in. Most Australians aren't. They're on a lot less money than we are. It may give you comfort on a politician's salary to talk about slogans, but it doesn't give comfort to Australians who are struggling.

We heard in the election last year a lot of lessons. Whenever you're in opposition, you must eat some humble pie, and we did. One of the top issues was integrity, and the most important part about integrity is trust. You trust what people say, and the test is what they do. On that, we will never forget what the Attorney-General did in this place. What he did was disgraceful.

When Australians looked the Prime Minister, the then opposition leader, in the eye, he looked down the camera and gave them that promise so many times—97 times. We've heard the reply about the war in Ukraine and supply chain problems. Of course those are challenges, but they were challenges when he made that promise. To still go ahead and make the promise in those circumstances is either dishonest or desperate or maybe a bit of both. In the desperation to move from these benches to those benches, he looked down the camera and told Australians what he thought they wanted to hear, not what they needed to know. What they need to know now is that the government has their back.

In question time we had many of my colleagues speak directly to the Prime Minister and the other ministers about people in their electorates who are struggling. They've named them, and they have to ask permission for that. There are many people who write to us and would prefer that their names aren't read out in this place. They're real people with real problems who, when we use their names, tune in and listen to the response, and they note that there is no answer in the response. There is no answer to their problems.

I'm a Victorian, and there are particularly concerning statistics for Victorian energy prices. In a week and a half we'll have a by-election in the seat of Aston. There are many families in Bayswater, Ferntree Gully, Knox, Rowville and Scoresby who are struggling and small businesses that are struggling to pay their bills and will question whether they will stay open. Here are the statistics for Victoria. The number of affected customers for the draft determinations—and the finals will be made in May—is 2,666,000. For small businesses it's 289,474. That's so many. That's almost three MCGs of small-business owners who are really struggling.

I'll give an example from my electorate: Fratelli Engineering. We talk about making things in Australia; we hear that a lot from the other side. Fratelli Engineering actually makes things in Australia. They are a small business that employs people in huge numbers in my electorate, but they don't know whether they will survive past this year. There are many pressures, but No. 1, after wages, is the cost of energy. If that business closes, that's a great tragedy. That business opened in the 1990s, set up as a family business. In fact, it's in their name: Fratelli means 'brothers' in Italian. To that company, to Sam Leo, who's the owner and managing director: I'm sorry that you were given that promise.

Anyone in small business knows that when you hear a promise and you rely on it, you make plans. So, when Australians heard the promise by the Prime Minister, they made plans, and they also gave a commitment, the most important commitment that they could give, which was their vote. A vote is trust. That trust has been abused by this Prime Minister and this government.

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