Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …' People will recall the famous novel by Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities. But if Charles Dickens were alive today, he would be compelled to write about a tale of two Labor parties. The first Labor Party is the Labor Party that acts in a certain way when it's desperate to get elected to government. The other tale of the Labor Party is how it chooses to act when it is elected to government. Earlier today we talked about the great deceit that Labor has inflicted upon Western Australian voters. Prior to the election, the Labor Party said that large-scale, wide-ranging, backward-looking industrial relations reforms were not part of its plan. And today, six months after their election, as we begin the last parliamentary fortnight, the big ticket item that this Senate chamber will debate will be Labor's big plans for industrial relations reform.

But nothing tells the story better about what Labor says and what Labor does on its way into government compared to what Labor says and does when it's in government than the issue of electricity prices. On 97 occasions—just think about that; it's three fewer than 100—the Labor Party thought it would seek to camouflage its poor record on electricity prices in an effort to come to government. Mr Jim Chalmers, then shadow Treasurer, said in Perth on 30 April this year:

'We've got policies to get electricity prices down,' Mr Chalmers said.

At the Powering Australia press conference on 3 December 2021, the Prime Minister himself, Mr Albanese, then the opposition leader, said of Labor's policy that it 'would see electricity prices fall from the current level by $275 for households' by 2025. In his National Press Club address on 18 May this year, the then opposition leader and now Labor Prime Minister, Mr Albanese, said:

Making Australia a renewable energy superpower is the fastest way to cut pollution and the most effective way to act on climate change.

And then he said:

But it's also the best way to cut power bills for families and businesses—saving families $275 a year.

They are just a few examples of the 97 occasions when Labor, in opposition, said it would commit to bringing power prices down for Australian families by $275. That's what they said in opposition.

And what has happened in government? You can run but you can't hide from the budget process. In the government's own budget documents, at page 57 of Budget Paper No. 1, it says:

Treasury has assumed retail electricity prices will increase by an average of 20 per cent nationally in late 2022, contributing to higher forecast CPI in 2022-23. Given forward wholesale contract prices for electricity remain elevated, retail electricity prices are expected to rise by a further 30 per cent in 2023-24.

What Labor says in opposition, when trying to get to government, is very, very different to what it does in government.

Who are the people that pay the price for that? It's ordinary Australian families and small and medium-sized businesses. Just this morning, Western Australians would have woken up to a news story about how Western Australian charities are now having to do more to support Western Australian families meet the rising cost-of-living challenges. (Time expired)