Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the lead up to the 2013 election, coalition members promised Australians they would reduce their electricity prices by $500 each year. Guess what? It never, ever happened. And guess what happened yesterday? The Prime Minister promised the community he would reduce their bills by $1,500 per year. Again I say to all members present: don't believe him, because over the course of the last four years, electricity and energy prices have gone up and up and up.

We know that every expert in the country, every key stakeholder, is saying the same thing: you can tinker around the edges at the retail point—fine, we have no problem with that; any benefit that can be derived there is a good thing—but you can't have it make a meaningful difference, you can't put prices down, without embracing the real problem, and that is the investment drought in the generation sector. You won't address that drought if you don't embrace Finkel in full, including the clean energy target.

Why won't the Prime Minister do it? Because he can't control his party. But is it only that? Did he sign something in writing? Does the coalition agreement make a commitment that he won't introduce a carbon constraint? This is why the Australian people are entitled to see that agreement.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before I call the member for Swan, there is a general warning in this House: I will not put up with any more of that.