Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I mean, really! While those opposite sit on their hands, we are getting on with the job of delivering energy price relief to Australian households. They can snipe from the sidelines, continue their blocking tactics, continue to say no, but we're not wasting time. We're delivering relief to households who need it. They left a mess for families and businesses to bear through extraordinary times. They failed to invest in renewables. They failed to invest in power generation. Actually, they failed to invest in power transmission, losing us precious time. And they refused to accept not only the science of climate change but also the economic reality of the benefits of renewable energy. Put simply, they failed Australia.

We understand that families are doing it tough. Inflation is the defining economic challenge of 2023, as it was in 2022, and we know Australians are feeling it and seeing it. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years due to Russia's prolonged attack on Ukraine. Energy prices are forecast to stay high for longer because global energy market disruptions have become more pronounced and are persisting longer. But we are acting. We have a huge suite of policies. After a decade of underinvestment, policy division, grandstanding about the virtue of fossil fuels and the demonising of renewables—after all of that—they dare to come into this place and say our policies are driving up energy prices. It's absolutely absurd. They are the masters of nothing other than a policy vacuum. Unlike those opposite, we have policies. We know that we need to act right now, and we have policies that are keeping prices down and delivering the energy system we need for our future.

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