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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's promise to the families of Longford, in the election of Lyons:

… we've looked at measures that make a real permanent difference to cost of living … our Powering Australia Plan … will reduce household power prices by $275.

A promise repeated at least 15 times. Will the Prime Minister apologise to Australians he has misled?

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. Indeed, in Longman and in electorates right around Australia, people are struggling with high power bills, and they're higher because of the failure of those opposite, over 10 long years, to implement a policy. We stand by our plan to put more renewables in the system, which will drive down power prices. And we note that those opposite voted against lower power prices today. They voted against it again and again and again and again and again. They voted against it consistently, because one of their final acts in government was actually to hide the power price increases that were coming in on 1 July. They didn't just hide it by not telling people. They hid it by changing, through a regulation, going to the Governor-General in that the dying days of a dying government—in the dying days of a dying government they went to the GG and changed the rules so that Australians would not know, when they voted on 21 May, that there were already baked-in increases in power prices coming in on 1 July.

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

The Prime Minister will just take a break. The Manager of Opposition Business?

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

The point of order is on relevance. The people of Longford don't care about their excuses. They want to know if they're going to get the promised power price cut of $275—

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

Resume your seat. The Prime Minister was in order. He was talking about the commitment made. I call the Prime Minister.

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

Whether it was in Tasmania or whether it was in Queensland or whether in South Australia or whether in Western Australia, or whether it was in a city or a regional town, we had the same message, and that message was backed by, this morning, an alphabet soup of business leaders. These are the groups that called upon the coalition to back the legislation that went through the House of Reps earlier today: AICD, ACSI, IGCC, ACF, BCA, AIG, ACCI, ACSI, RIAA, GIA—

Opposition members interjecting—

the Minerals Council of Australia—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Members on my left and right.

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

calling upon them to vote for certainty. That's what business wants, because—I'll give you the big tip—if business has certainty, they can invest, and it's investment in cheaper, cleaner energy that will drive down power prices.