Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

When I head out to rural and regional Australia and I am talking to farmers who are suffering from the worst drought our country has seen, one of the things they talk to me about a lot is the cost of electricity. We know that, particularly if you're a dairy farmer, you can have high input costs because of the cost of grain at the moment, because of the drought. You have increased costs of water because of the drought. There are also high input costs when it comes to electricity prices, which is affecting profitability at the end of the line. When input costs go up and you're not getting much more for your product, you know what? You have less money and so you are doing it tough. Dairy farmers are doing it tough, because of the price of electricity, amongst other input costs. Our government is committed to getting that down, and that means supporting reliable supply. (Time expired)