Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I've been speaking to people out in the community of Penrith, St Marys, Luddenham, all across Lindsay, and speaking to small businesses this last week, there has been a common theme. You ask, 'How you are going?' and arms get thrown up in the air. The top issue, of course, is the cost of living and people are just so annoyed about the broken promises of the Albanese Labor government, particularly on the cost of living and those cheaper mortgages that were promised. We have seen rate rise after rate rise, causing so many Western Sydney families to struggle. Families are under pressure when it comes to housing, whether it be their mortgages or whether they are looking for homes.

The commitment to the Morrison government's infrastructure pipeline was cut by the infrastructure minister and then repackaged. Western Sydney residents were given back the repackaged commitment, which was less money—and we were all expected to be grateful for less money. The current commitment is nowhere near enough for a growing population with the Western Sydney International Airport just around the corner.

There is one figure, though, that is etched into the minds of everyday Australians in the suburbs of Western Sydney, and that is $275. The Prime Minister, before the election, promised almost 100 times that energy bills would be lowered by $275. But they've gone up a tremendous amount. In Western Sydney, households are paying more than $1,000 above what the Prime Minister promised when he said they'd be paying $275 less. It's extraordinary.

A gym in Penrith is paying double for its energy bill. A cafe tells me that they're struggling to keep their doors open, particularly because of the cost of energy. We've got food banks not only feeding families with double incomes but also paying for their electricity bills. For us, this isn't good enough. It's certainly not good enough for me, being the local member for Lindsay.

The reckless renewables-only approach of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy is causing so much damage to families and small businesses. I've been speaking to manufacturers across Western Sydney, and they're not happy with the Albanese Labor government. Do you know what they need? They need gas.

We spoke with brickworks recently, at Austral Bricks, and they need gas to make bricks. Pandrol Australia in Blacktown needs gas to make railway parts, and I know they are so worried about not being able to be part of our sovereign capability—our supply chain—of making Aussie made in this country. Mascot Steel Fabrication in Emu Plains needs gas to fabricate steel.

The coalition is committed to gas being part of the Capacity Investment Scheme, and we need gas projects approved and basins unlocked to get the economy moving again. More supply will help bring prices down so our manufacturers can make things in Australia and our households on double incomes don't have to line up at those food banks and get their electricity bills paid for them.

If the $275 figure isn't scaring people off enough, there are more concerning numbers that have been released over just this last week. The Frontier Economics report demonstrates the government has not been straight with the Australian people. We now know Labor said that utility scale generation, storage and transmission would cost $122 billion, but the real number that they haven't told Australians is $642 billion. They are only off by a whopping half a trillion dollars. The concerning thing is that that big figure translates to a figure that every single Australian in the national electricity market will need to pay: $59,000 per household. That is $59,000 that people will be worse off.

When it comes to the cost of people's mortgages and the broken promise on infrastructure projects that were ripped away and then repackaged with an expectation that everyone would be grateful—even though they were getting less—and when it comes to the broken promise of the $275, Australians are asking a lot of questions and, in Western Sydney, they are certainly feeling very let down by this Albanese Labor government.

House adjourned at 20:00