Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. ABS data shows electricity prices increased, on average, by 12.9 per cent per year when Labor was last in government, compared to just 0.3 per cent during the previous coalition government. Given the Prime Minister has now dumped his promise to cut power prices for Australian families by $275, can the Prime Minister cut the hubris and tell Australian families whether power prices will be higher or lower when they get their next bill?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank so much the Leader of the Opposition for this question, which goes to whether Australians will have higher power prices when they get their next bill. I'm happy to outline for the benefit of the House what the circumstances are when they get their next bill. We of course did have a policy, which we announced on 3 December last year. On 31 March this year the Governor-General, acting on the minister's advice, signed a determination to delay the publication of the default market offer for energy prices. On 6 April a determination to amend paragraph 17(2)(c) of the electricity retail industry code was registered and published. On 7 April the determination with the delayed date came into effect. Guess when the election was called—10 April. So three days before the election was called, this minister went to the GG and put in a determination to change the industry code to keep it secret. On 11 April parliament was prorogued and caretaker commenced. The first of May—May Day—was the previous publication date the default market offer that they deleted. Election day was on 21 May, and guess when they published it. Was it before or after 21 May? What do you think? Hands up those who think it might have been before the election! Hands up those who think it was after the election!

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You bet!

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. The point of order is relevance. The question was very specific: will power prices—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat. The question was specific about the former government and the government before that and what the Prime Minister is doing regarding electricity prices.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those people who said it was after the election were spot on. On 26 May the default market offer was finally published by the Australian Energy Regulator. The new default price that will feed straight into people's power bills came into effect on 1 July. It is the default market price for this government that the former government tried to hide from the Australian people.

What we know is that renewables will lead to cheaper power prices. We stand by our modelling. Those opposite couldn't even be straight with the Australian people about the higher power prices that they locked in.