Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

We understand that households are doing it tough, with a number of cost-of-living pressures for many Australians, particularly those who are on fixed incomes, such as retirees, and those with many other costs, such as many Australian families. We know that they've seen, over the past 10 years, a 56 per cent increase in electricity prices, and that is just unacceptable. That's why we've worked over a continuous period of time to put in place reforms to the retail market, reforms to transmission grids, reforms to the generation systems—all of them focused on ensuring that we drive prices down.

We also know that, for Australian businesses, lower electricity prices are central to competitiveness, and we must make sure that we keep Australian business as competitive as possible in terms of their ability to compete with the rest of the world. That is why we'll continue the work on implementing those ACCC recommendations, which will ensure that we get more investment in reliable energy that encourages more competition, backed by the toughest of penalties for the future. (Time expired)