David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government's credibility has been entirely destroyed over the issue of electricity prices. We know that before the election the government said 97 times that electricity prices would decline by $275. We know that after the election they stopped talking about it. The obvious question is: why did they stop talking about it? Why did they start talking about it in the first place? They started talking about it because they wanted to get elected. They thought it would be popular, and they were right. It was a popular idea to reduce electricity prices—that's why they said it 97 times. Why did they stop talking about it after the election? Because they knew it wasn't going to happen.

When the Prime Minister gave a 2,300-word speech about energy in July, how many times did he mention $275? Not once. In 2,300 words he used the word 'energy' 41 times and '$275' not once. Oddly, three days before the election—you'll see the theme of before and after—there was a big speech at the National Press Club, with everyone there, and there was $275. But when the election happened, everything changed. He wrote an op-ed in the Daily Mail about this issue, trying to reach as broad a group of people as possible. The Treasurer, in his local paper, said in the first sentence that the benefit of an Albanese government was the $275. That's what the people of my city of Logan were told. It's a shameful episode in our political history and a terrible failure of this government.