Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the question from the senator, a senator from a state in which under a Liberal government I understand we have seen quite substantial hikes in electricity prices. I do not recall seeing the good senator call for compensation from the state Liberal government when Western Australians continued to see their electricity prices increase. If he was really serious about his concern, one might have thought that he might have said something when Premier Barnett ensured that he delivered higher electricity prices without compensation for Western Australian families.

It is the case that we have seen another Liberal state government release another set of modelling to jump aboard Mr Abbott's scare campaign in relation to a carbon price. Similar to modelling exercises recently released, the Western Australian government has presented the information in a way that does show the carbon price in a negative light. For example, there are modelled electricity price impacts which are presented as being revelation of the hidden cost of a carbon price when in fact I am advised that the Western Australian Treasury concludes that electricity price impacts for consumers will be seven per cent. This is in fact lower than the 10 per cent that the federal government has modelled and that our household assistance is based on. I am advised that the Western Australian modelling actually shows a lower increase in electricity impacts than the federal modelling that we based our household assistance on. If I had time, I would be very happy to share with Senator Cormann the very many households in Western Australia who will get a tax cut under this government. (Time expired)