Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thoroughly enjoyed that contribution from the member for Hasluck on what I'm pretty confident will be her last day in this place, because if we go to an election the people of Hasluck actually deserve a good representative. When I say good, I mean Mr Goode, the candidate for the Liberal Party in that seat. Quite frankly, he will conduct himself properly in this place, unlike the member for Hasluck and the contribution that has been made there, which just goes to show how out of touch this Labor government are with reality. The Leader of the Opposition is living rent free in their heads. They cannot get past the concept of Peter Dutton—the member for Dickson, the Leader of the Opposition—being elected as the Prime Minister. So instead of standing here and talking about something meaningful to the people of Australia—to Western Australia and the people of Hasluck—we get this diatribe that made no sense whatsoever about the Leader of the Opposition.

It's actually quite embarrassing that the Labor Party has nothing more to contribute. But I'll tell you what they have contributed over their nearly three years in government, and that is an energy policy that is leading to higher power prices and rolling blackouts across Australia. Australian businesses and households are being crippled by the price rises in their energy bills. Instead of having a plan for affordability or reliability to keep the lights on, Labor are too busy screaming about the nemesis that they see in the Leader of the Opposition.

Let's make a contrast here between the Leader of the Opposition, who is one of the choices for Prime Minister for the Australian people at the next election, and the current Prime Minister, who, prior to the last election, made a promise—and he made this promise on more than 97 occasions—that Australians would receive a $275 reduction in their power bills. Since the election, that number has not been mentioned or uttered by the Prime Minister, but, more than that, he has utterly failed to deliver it. More than that, he has actually gone back on his word because the reality is that power prices have gone up. In New South Wales and Queensland, for example, we have seen record highs in wholesale prices and market volatility spiralling completely out of control. So, at the next election, the coalition stands ready to deliver a cheaper, cleaner and consistent 24/7 power source for our nation that will deliver jobs and security for us to remain prosperous off the backbone of that energy grid.

As Australians go to the ballot boxes, they will be thinking about whether or not they are better off now than they were when Labor came into office in May 2022. The answer to that is a clear and resounding no. This is not just some sort of fictional thing that people are imagining. This is their real lived experience over the term of this Labor government. One critical point for Australian families has been out-of-control mortgage rises. Every other advanced economy last year was seeing interest rates coming down, but, in Australia, we have a Treasurer who is addicted to big spending, big bureaucracy and therefore bigger inflation. That has set the baseline for the pain that Australians are feeling as they pay their rent and their mortgage. We need to get Australia back on track.