Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Those opposite have no end to their misleading and deceptive discussion on this issue. As the Council of Small Business Australia data shows, the electricity cost of a typical small retail business makes up less than two per cent of total costs—less than two per cent. So a 10 per cent price increase would be less than 0.2 per cent of total costs. For a typical small business using 10 megawatt hours of electricity per year, this is around $5 per week.

Opposition senators interjecting—

In most cases, business electricity costs are expected to be passed on, and have been taken into account in the design of the government's Household Assistance Package, which is delivering tax cuts, higher family payments and an increase in pensions.

Opposition senators interjecting—

And we have put in place a range of programs.