Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I'd be delighted to use the Prime Minister's proper title, because guess what the Prime Minister said this morning in the House of Representatives, when he spoke to this? He said, 'This is the government's plan for energy price relief.' You've got to be kidding me! But he can't even mention the words '$275', which you said 97 times before the election. But you cannot bring yourselves now to mention the words '$275'.

Let's see which one of you—Senator Gallagher, I believe it's going to be you—is going to go through how, buried in the announcement of this bill, is that energy prices are now forecast by the government to increase by an extra six per cent in 2023-24. And it gets worse, because, accordingly, on the government's own modelling, bills will still increase by $407 in 2023-24 and a cumulative $702 across the next two financial years. Guess what? That is in your own legislation. The reason you're gagging it is that you don't want to talk about it. This is a complete affront to the processes in the Senate. Quite frankly, going forward the failure of the energy market will be on your heads.