Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Your minister for energy has claimed that since 2013 power prices have gone down in Sydney. Is he right?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The technique of the Leader of the Opposition is to tell one falsehood after another and then hope that, by repeating it, it will cut through. He has no regard for the truth whatsoever. He misled the House and was condemned for it today. He misled the Australian people by claiming that the Australian Energy Regulator's figures showed that, under the time of the coalition government, electricity prices for average Sydney households had gone up by $1,000. As has been amply demonstrated in the House today, that was completely untrue. There was no basis in fact. He took the names of two very important government agencies, the AER—the energy regulator—and the Energy Market Commission, and he said they showed that prices had gone up by $1,000 in the four years of the coalition government. He stood out at a door stop and he said—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Management of Opposition Business, a point of order?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, on direct relevance, Mr Speaker. The question could not have been more specific about whether or not the Prime Minister agrees with his Minister for Energy.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister is addressing the claim in the question. He's entitled to address it by staying on the policy topic, which he's doing. He's completely in order. The Prime Minister has the call.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Electricity prices are not a question of opinion. They're a question of fact. We know what the facts are, and the facts were misrepresented by the Labor Party. They were deliberately misrepresented by the Labor Party. The Leader of the Opposition said, 'The research shows'—what research? No research, no facts, and they repeated it again and again. As I have said and as the energy minister has said, we know what happened. The coalition came into government, it abolished the carbon tax, electricity prices went down—

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter's now warned.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's it. Coalition policies resulted in electricity prices going down. Labor voted against that. And we have seen in recent times, particularly in the course of the last 12 months, very large increases in electricity prices.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney is warned.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And why have we seen that? We've seen that because of the closure of Hazelwood, the failure to provide enough backup to renewables and the soaring price of gas. All of that is the consequence of Labor failures. These are all problems Labor created and that we're seeking to address. But we've got to recognise that despite saying something that was patently untrue—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Shortland.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

despite telling falsehoods about the views of two important regulators, despite misleading the House, the Leader of the Opposition has never had the courage to come to the despatch box and— (Time expired)

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Shortland is now warned.