Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I understand why the honourable member is leaving. Whether it's shopping with the big two, Coles and Woolies, filling up the car or paying energy bills, Australians are doing it tough. That's why we have directed the ACCC to conduct this pricing inquiry. I think it's been welcomed by all Australians, because we do need to look at the lack of competitiveness in this sector. There are lots of cons going on and there's lots of gouging going on. Whenever you see market concentration you see airlines colluding or petrol stations colluding or supermarkets perhaps not doing the best that they can, not being ethical in the work that they do as a provider of food security in our nation. It is disappointing when we see these corporate behaviours, but we're committed to doing everything that we can to make sure that Australians get a fair go, because that's what Labor does. Greater transparency around pricing, which is going to be great for the farmers as well, is going to help everyone—and the big two will still make good profits.

But this is only one of our measures to help Aussies that are doing it tough at the moment. We have been delivering some power bill relief, particularly for those who are less able to pay those power bills. I'm thinking of the concession card holders in our electorate who are paying aircon bills. It's difficult, and that assistance is very welcome and needed. Our tax legislation was all about relief and reform, so that all Australians got some tax relief and had a bit more of the money that they earned in their pockets to look after themselves and their families. To be honest, after almost 10 years those opposite had put us in a position where we've had to take actions like this, and we will continue to take actions like this, to fix a number of elements of our economy. We will continue to do that, through consultation, to make sure that Australian consumers are getting fairer prices.

We also looked at a range of ways in which we could pump-prime the NT economy, if I can concentrate on the beautiful place where I live. It was great to have the cabinet up in Darwin last week.

See this speech in context