Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The No. 1 issue I hear when travelling around the electorate of Flynn is how people are struggling with the cost of living, especially families and businesses dealing with the rising cost of energy. Families and businesses are genuinely hurting. There are people who are now at breaking point. I've had many emails and calls from retirees, families and working people who are hurting every time they go to the supermarket, every time they open their electricity bill, every time they get a letter from the bank announcing another interest rate rise and every time they go to the bowser to fill up the family car with petrol. Under this Labor government, this is set to get even worse, and Labor has no plan to ease this burden of the cost of living and the price of energy.

Let's look at the Labor government's truckie tax as an example. In their recent budget they announced a six per cent increase on the heavy vehicle road user charge over a three-year period, which will equate to more than 18 per cent over the three-year period. Everything we have in this country comes on the back of a truck—all of the goods we buy. Everything that travels from a port to a shop, whatever it is, comes on the back of a truck—groceries and wind turbines. Our truckies keep this country going; they get food to our stores and out to our shopping centres. There are more than 197,000 people employed in the industry, and this reckless tax puts drivers' jobs and livelihoods at risk, drives up the cost of living and drives up the cost of energy.

The minister for infrastructure argues that this increased tax gives certainty to the transport industry. The only certainty the transport industry will have is that it will have to increase costs and charges and pass those on to the consumer. How can this possibly help with the cost of living that many Australians are experiencing? This is bad government policy and it only adds to inflation.

On 97 occasions the Prime Minister promised Australians that their electricity bills would go down by $275. Well, where is it? All we've had is our power costs increase—that's it. Power bills at the Emerald grocery store in my electorate of Flynn have increased by 40.77 per cent over the previous 12 months, from $78,313 to $110,224. That's from June 2022 to May 2023. How can they possibly say that energy is getting cheaper? It is not, it is getting more expensive! What is this going to mean? The grocery store at Emerald will increase and pass on their costs to the consumer. This will make everything more expensive. Add that to a predicted 28 per cent increase rise in energy costs and everything will become more expensive.

Let's look at Minister Bowen's energy policy, which is supposed to bring power bills down. The policy involves installing 22,000 solar panels every day between now and 2030, and 40 wind turbines every month between now and 2030, and there is a proposal to build 28,000 kilometres of high-voltage powerlines to connect these renewables to the grid. Mr Bowen says, arrogantly, that renewables are getting cheaper. Well, if renewables get any cheaper nobody is going to be able to afford their electricity bill!

I received the following email from a constituent. It says:

This current Federal Government had spruced election promises of lower electricity prices and that all these installed renewables provide cheaper supply; however, the real-world evidence does not support their claims. As you are in opposition it is your responsibility to hold the government to account at every opportunity. I would ask you pressure this new federal government and the state government on behalf of those small businesses and families who must financially pay for all of this as we are on an unsustainable track.

And that is the truth of the matter.

My question to Mr Bowen is: do you really think these policies are making energy cheaper for Australians? They simply are not. And my question to householders across Queensland is: has your power bill gone up or has it gone down under the Labor government? The facts are that it has been reported that power prices in regional Queensland are expected to increase by 28 per cent. That is a further cost impost on everybody.

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