Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Kazik is 81 years old and lives with his 78-year-old wife, Tatiana, in Griffin within my electorate of Petrie. Kazik and Tatiana's latest gas bill is 72 per cent higher than their previous bill. This increase means they'll have to make difficult decisions this winter about whether to eat or whether to stay warm. Why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

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

The member for Lyons is warned.

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

I thank the member for Petrie for his question, which goes to the price of gas, which we had a vote on in this parliament. Those opposite voted against a price cap on gas of $12, and they also voted against providing assistance of $1.5 billion.

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! If the member for Bowman interjects one more time, he will be leaving the chamber.

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

They've also indicated they're going to vote against the safeguard mechanism, which business is saying is absolutely essential to create investment in the energy sector so that we drive down prices, due to supply-demand issues. Businesses are saying that they desperately want that signal, which was established by the former government. Those opposite can't vote against assistance for people and then tell them that they want to support them, because the truth is that if they wanted to do that they could have voted for the support that was in here when we resumed parliament in January. In another place, in New South Wales, the coalition and Labor all voted for lower power prices together, to their credit. That is what a responsible opposition did. You were an irresponsible opposition and just opposed it for its own sake.