Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability) Share this | Hansard source

'The Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Change and Energy's bungled and broken promises—a mix tape, 2022 to 2025'. That sounds better! It just rolls off the tongue! It's something we can all listen to travelling from our homes to Canberra, except no-one can afford the Prime Minister's album in this cost-of-living crisis.

From coast to coast, across every stretch of our country, people are suffering. Whether in Lilydale, Shepparton, Hamilton, Mount Gambier, Norwood, Whyalla, Geraldton, Bunbury, Mandurah, Burnie, Launceston, Strathpine, Rockhampton—we know these places—Albury, Narellan or Sutherland, no-one is immune to the broken promises that have left people paying hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more for their electricity bills thanks to the Prime Minister and the energy minister's bungled energy policies.

How do I know this? Because it's real life. Member on this side are on the ground talking to their people; listening, caring and fighting for them. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition recently announced that Seeley, a business in her electorate, will close operations and cut 125 jobs. This is due to gas issues caused by Victorian Labor. What a surprise! More Labor policies across the country hurting everyday Australians, with jobs gone. Central Queensland MPs, like the members for Capricornia and Flynn, are worried about what happens to workers when their power plants close and how Central Queensland will keep the lights on.

In my own electorate, a Penrith food charity which provides up to 400 meals six times a week is now struggling itself and at threat of closing its doors. Can you believe that? A food charity that is feeding people in need is at threat of closing. When I asked the minister for energy this week about Mama Lana's looking at closing down due to their energy bills increasing by $900, he didn't care one bit. Mama Lana's feeds people right across the Penrith area and also those in the member for McMahon's patch, yet he laughed it off. He didn't even know which energy company looked after my area, then proceeded to pat himself on the back.

What about the 30 per cent, or $1,000, owed to Western Sydney families to meet this government's $275 broken promise? We know that the Prime Minister in particular likes to pretend that they never made this promise, that it never happened. The problem is, he had a press pack with him, and he looked at the camera, straight into the eyes and hearts of everyday Australians, and said: 'Vote for me. I have your backs. And in return your electricity bills will be $275 cheaper.' When asked by a journalist at the very first press conference whether he thought it was possible, the Prime Minister said, 'I don't think; I know, because we've done the modelling.' So, not only did the Prime Minister say it 97 times; he backed himself with the modelling. You just can't make a commitment like that disappear, as much as you try to ignore it. Have people on this side forgotten that promise?

Opposition members: No!

An opposition member: Not on your nellie!

No—not on your nellie! Have the Australian people forgotten this promise?

Opposition members: No!

But what about Labor members' own constituents? Have they forgotten this promise?

Opposition members: No!

I don't think they've forgotten either, because in Parramatta, in Macquarie, in Gilmore, in Whitlam, in Blaxland, in McMahon, in Chifley, in Greenway and in Werriwa they are paying over $1,000 more for their electricity. Some people are really hurting. Over 60,000 people in New South Wales are on energy hardship payments, which is an alarming 82 per cent increase on the 2021-22 figure. The drop in the default market offer did not reverse the damage that has been done to every Australian.

But this isn't the Albanese government's only haphazard policy that is harming people. The energy minister is rushing through fuel efficiency standards. So, the tradies who need to get in their utes to get to job sites early in the morning—to build new homes in this housing crisis, to build the hospitals and roads we need to contend with population pressures—are experiencing a tradie tax. But don't take my word for it. Garth Butler, the principal dealer at Penrith Toyota, said this about the tradie tax: 'The rushed-in fuel efficiency standards will definitely have an effect on our business. Most manufacturers won't be able to meet the targets. They will have to pay the fine and that cost will be passed on to the buyers.' If you ask a tradie, 'Do you want to pay nearly $100,000 for a ute?' they'll say, 'No way.' And it will hurt those in our community who rely on utility vehicles to get to their work and back home again. Penrith is full of tradies, and they travel across Sydney to do their work.

As an Aussie tradie listens to their copy of the Prime Minister's bungled-policies mix tape 2022 to 2025 on their way to work at 5:00 in the morning, they're going to go to a track halfway through the playlist. This is a playlist of 97 songs—a song for every broken promise—and this particular song is 'The Honeymoon Is Over', by The Cruel Sea:

Oh, it ain't no fun no more

I don't know what to say

The honeymoon is over, baby

It's never gonna be that way again

Well, it certainly isn't going to be that way again under this government, and the honeymoon is certainly over for the Prime Minister, even while he continues to tell Australians they have never had it better.

How is that true, when manufacturers are closing their doors because gas has been torn away from them and they just can't afford to stay open? How is it true that people have never had it better when hospitality venues across the country and in every single one of our electorates are closing their doors because there are just not enough customers and they can't keep the lights on? How is it true that Australians have never had it better when they're paying 37 per cent more for their electricity bills? And how is it true that Australians have never had it better when our tradies are being whacked, not only with higher material costs but with a higher ute prices, too? It is extraordinary that right across the country, whether you're a tradie, whether you're a farmer or whether you're a mum and dad just struggling to put food on the table, you are being hit by the Albanese Labor government's bungled energy policies.

Australians want the truth, so I'm going to finalise my MPI by saying, as one of the Prime Minister's own former Labor colleagues, from Midnight Oil, once sang, 'Why won't you tell me the truth?' Why won't this Prime Minister tell Australians the truth?

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