Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 1964 Donald Horne penned his book, The Lucky Country. The title soon became the nickname for Australia, which was ironic given the book was actually quite critical of Australia's rapid ascension to wealth and power. The title was drawn from the opening words of the book's last chapter:

Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.

Horne's message was while Australia has indeed been lucky, and blessed with resources, he was doubtful whether we deserved such luck, and was worried that unless we realised our good fortune, our luck may run out. I and many of my constituents now share Horne's concern that our luck may have run out. I say this because there was a time not too long ago when we had affordable electricity and a large manufacturing base. In my home state of South Australia, Sir Thomas Playford, South Australia's longest-serving premier, understood that power and water schemes were required to grow our industrial base and provide opportunity and quality of life for residents. The Adelaide Electricity Supply Company—at that time a private entity—proved troublesome for Playford as it shipped coal from New South Wales and, in times of great desperation, from South Africa. Refusing to store coal reserves placed our energy needs at constant risk. Playford, after many years of agitation and a royal commission, saw the AESC—the newly created Electricity Trust of South Australia—invest in the Leigh Creek mine, and this meant that South Australia's energy needs were no longer dependent on interstate or international influences. With cheap and reliable electricity a certainty, a golden age of manufacturing happened in South Australia, with automotive manufacturing beyond white goods everything.

Times have certainly changed. We no longer own our own power supply. ETSA was sold in 1997 to fund the state government bail out of the state bank collapse. We have some of the highest energy prices in the world in South Australia, and manufacturing capacity is declining. Our economic complexity ranking is languishing at 93rd in the world. It's difficult to understand how we got here. As a country with enormous natural resources, we should have the cheapest electricity in the world and a thriving, advanced manufacturing sector. What is now occurring is, I believe, a national disgrace. I've been inundated with heartbreaking stories from people in my community who can no longer afford the basics—forget about the luxuries of life. Just last week I had an email from a couple their 80s. Their electricity bill for the last quarter was a staggering $883. Unable to afford these expensive bills, they go to bed immediately after dinner—it's their only way to get away from the cold. What is most disturbing is that this is not an isolated case. I receive emails and phone calls about this each week—stories of people wearing puffer jackets to keep warm, compromising on food purchases and children being pulled out of sport and music just to manage their household burden.

The general cost-of-living crisis has pervaded every aspect of our lives. I've noticed almost a weekly increase in our staples. A packet of three tins of baked beans was $3.30 just a couple of years ago—it's now $6. The Australian Energy Regulator announced expected retail price increases for electricity between 20 per cent and 25 per cent as of 1 July this year. However, my community has experienced increases of over 50 per cent. The number of residential electricity consumers participating in hardship programs increased from 19 per cent in the same quarter last year. The average hardship debt increased by eight per cent to $1,871.

In 1976, Horne wrote his follow-up: Death of the Lucky Country. We need to do better in this nation. I sincerely hope that Horne was wrong and that we continue to be the lucky country. But how in one generation we could have let our manufacturing go, how we could have ensured that pensioners are freezing cold and starving hungry, is an abomination and we must do better in this place.