Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On 12 April this year the Prime Minister promised Tasmanian families that his government would 'reduce household prices by $275'. Will the Prime Minister finally admit to Tasmanian families that he has broken his word to them and his only remaining promise on power bills is the 56 per cent increase in electricity prices which appears in the budget?

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

I thank the member for his question, which goes to Tasmania. I'm going to quote someone who said:

The issue here, that New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia are dealing with now—

apparently he left off Tassie—

has been the ideological war when it comes to climate change and energy policy in this country, and that has led to a lack of private sector investment.

That was from that well-known socialist Dominic Perrottet, the New South Wales Liberal Premier.

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

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is on a warning.

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

I must say that, of all the prime ministers Premier Perrottet has dealt with, I'm his favourite. He tells me that. But you don't have to just look at the public sector across the spectrum; you can look at comments on 8 November from Kevin Gallagher, chief executive of Santos. This is what he had to say on 8 November:

There are conversations of fear that I never expected to see in my lifetime and in Australia they are the consequence of more than a decade of energy policy failure that quite frankly I've been warning about for many years.

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

The member for Herbert is on a warning.

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

That was the chief executive of Santos.

Then he said, 'They're also the consequence of domestic climate wars …'

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

The Leader of the Nationals is warned.

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

Kerry Schott, the person hand-picked to be head of energy security by those opposite said:

Just have a think about the way electricity gets dispatched—they get dispatched on the basis of who's the cheapest, and the cheapest is wind and solar. They have fuel costs that are zero. So their marginal cost is effectively zero.

But I'm asked also about Tasmania, and I suggest to the honourable member that he give Jeremy a call—Jeremy Rockliff, just up the road there. He might be in your seat; I think he represents your seat, so you share a seat. This is what the Tasmanian Premier and the member for Braddon had to say. He said this:

Renewable energy is absolutely 100 per cent in Tasmania's DNA … Reliable, affordable and clean energy that will unlock billions of dollars of investment over the course of the next decades … This is one of the most exciting announcements for decades when it comes to Commonwealth and State Government investing together in future energy security, unlocking that energy for attracting investment right here in Tasmania.

I say to this member for Braddon: listen to the other member for Braddon, who stood at a press conference—this is a Liberal Premier. That's what he had to say. (Time expired)