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

Have you heard the joke about the increase in power prices? I haven't, but it has not stopped the Prime Minister from laughing every single time he is asked a question from the coalition about why middle Australia is struggling with higher power prices. Have you heard the joke about middle Australian families who don't know how to pay the bills? Well, we haven't, but that has not stopped this Prime Minister laughing every single time this issue is raised in this parliament. This is not a joking matter. No matter how much the Labor Party may wish to mock, we have middle Australia right now suffering enormously. Yet we have this callous indifference displayed by the government, despite the fact they went to the election promising the Australian people that nobody would be left behind—nobody other than, of course, middle Australia.

We found out the new CPI figures from the ABS overnight. We found out that the monthly Consumer Price Index rose 6.8 per cent in the year to April 2023—that's compared to 6.3 per cent in March. We know this impact every single household across this country, and energy is a huge driver. This government promised the Australian people a reduction of $275 off their household power bills, and they have broken that promise. They have broken that promise—a promise they made over 97 occasions ahead of the election, a promise in fact they keep on their website. It's callous indifference to those in middle Australia who are doing it tough, who have seen their power bills go up by hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars. We found out only a week or so ago that those power bills will go up again—25 per cent for households, 29 per cent for small businesses—and we have nothing but hubris from the government—nothing.

Only on Monday, this week, I had the pleasure of joining the Leader of the Opposition together with the wonderful member for Casey on a visit to the Yarra Valley. We went to a company called Yarra Valley Hilltop and met with Laurie, who owns this business. He gets to work every day when it's still dark and he leaves when it's dark, as he looks after his 85 employees. Laurie runs a food manufacturing business, which is a business that supports local farmers, in particular.

In speaking with Laurie, his power bills have gone up, over the last 12 months, by 50 per cent. To put this in context, for the Yarra Valley Hilltop that's an additional $200,000 every single year.

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