Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hate to bring us back to the topic of power bills and interrupt the member for Hawke's florid recollection of American politics, but nevertheless.

As if it were possible for Victorians to get worse news about the cost of living. Already the highest taxed state in the country, her residents are confronting the greatest cost-of-living crisis in living memory and now this—a 30 per cent increase in power prices. The Victorian Essential Services Commission will announce an increase in default power prices tonight, and Victorian households will be hit by a 30 per cent increase. A 30 per cent increase—I'm flabbergasted just saying it.

Interest rates for most households on fixed rates are coming to an end this year, and for households transitioning overnight from about two per cent to a roughly eight per cent, and rising, variable rate it will cost an additional $20,000, at least, in repayments every year. The federal budget will continue to drive inflation and support the likelihood of even more interest rates over time. Groceries are going up. Fresh food, clothes, shoes, school supplies are all going up. And now there's a further 30 per cent whack in power prices.

Even though most people feel they've already absorbed huge power prices in the last year, it's worth remembering that the Victorian default offer last year only rose by five per cent. This increase is six times that. Outside Victoria, the Australian Energy Regulator has confirmed prices will rise between 20 and 25 per cent from 1 July—higher than the draft offer that we raised and debated in March in this place, which was expected to be in the order of 20 to 22 per cent but came in higher.

Since March, the Energy Regulator has seen this government do absolutely nothing to address the surging cost of energy. Indeed, it has done everything to drive prices up by injecting huge uncertainty into energy projects around the country. As a result of this government's failed and still failing policies on energy supply and cost, electricity prices will rise between 19 and 24 per cent in New South Wales, South Australia and South-East Queensland. Victoria's Essential Services Commission will lift prices by 25 per cent. The price increases will all come into effect in just a few weeks time, on 1 July. This will affect 600,000 customers in South Australia, New South Wales and South-East Queensland who are on the default offer, which is supposed to constrain huge price rises for households and small business alike. Following the blow of a budget which did nothing to help small business, in fact it took away many of the supports the former government had put in place for small business, small-business customers are now facing increases of around 15 per cent and up to 30 per cent in their energy prices.

In opposition, this government misled the Australian people. Nothing they said in the 2022 election campaign would have left any voter thinking things could possibly get worse—indeed, so much worse—in terms of affordability. The now Prime Minister promised us that the Albanese Labor government would reduce energy prices by $275, not increase them. Let me count how much they're going to increase them by. That increase will be up to $594 a year in New South Wales, $512 a year in South Australia, $402 a year in South-East Queensland and $352 a year in Victoria. But the Prime Minister promised them prices would be reduced by $275 not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times, not six times, not seven times—you can see where this is going. He promised them 97 times before the election that the cost of energy would go down by $275. For a while now he's been saying it's all Russia's fault, but he kept making the promise about the $275 well after Russia invaded Ukraine.

I'm guessing most people in this parliament are not the person in their household who pays the bills. I do, all of them—less punctually than I used to, I have to admit, but I pay all of them. Let me tell you the story they tell—up, up, up, never down, not once. Like most Australian families, I open my bills with trepidation. The quarterly electricity bill for a household of five can deck you for a month or two. On all extra spending on the unexpected demands of life—a doctor's appointment, a dentist's appointment, a new pair of shoes because something broke, a school camp: if those costs pop up in the same pay period your electricity bill lands, you can forget it. Put it on the credit card and hope things ease up a little bit next month.

The government talks about energy and climate like it's a value statement—not the daily impact it has on people's lives in terms of affordability and making ends meet. There has been a callous disregard for middle Australia and their reasonable expectations, their outright need, for help, when the Prime Minister promised 97 times that prices would drop.

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