Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question goes to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Darren Pilcher has been a local cafe owner on the Sunshine Coast for the past 8½ years, and he has just gone through one of the toughest years in business, under this Labor government. Darren's electricity bill has risen 60 per cent over the last year, and gas up to 50 per cent. Why are power bills going up when the Prime Minister promised they would go down?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the question from the honourable member for Fairfax, especially given it's the first one he's asked me since February—since February, and here we are in May. I'm very delighted to get a question from my shadow minister. In fact, I appreciate the shadow minister, generally—generally, I appreciate him. It's very important to me that he stays in his current role.

Now, in relation to Queensland's small businesses, it's also the case that, because of this government's intervention, the increase that Queensland's small businesses are facing has gone from 43 per cent down to 22 per cent as a result of the intervention of this government—an intervention those opposite (1) would not have imposed and, secondly, would repeal. The Leader of the Opposition was at the APPEA conference a couple of weeks ago promising to rip it up—

I say 'Ahpia', you say 'Apia'; I say 'renewables', you say 'nuclear'. Let's call the whole thing off!

Now, the Leader of the Opposition was promising to 'rip it up'—to rip up the intervention. He was channelling his inner Reagan. He was saying he was like Ronald Reagan. He was saying: 'Mr Albanese, tear down this bill relief!' That was his message at the APPEA conference.

Well, we're not going to stop the bill relief. We're going to continue with the bill relief, for businesses and for households right around the country, because that's what good governments do.