Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the Treasury Laws Amendment (Energy Price Relief Plan) Bill 2022. It's never the lie that's the problem; it's always the cover-up. And this legislation is the cover-up for the embarrassment of the 97 untruths that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke during the election campaign when he promised to reduce Australians' power bills. This bill will not reduce Australians' power bills—not before Christmas, not next year, not the year after that. It's not an ideologue saying that; it is just a fact.

This bill has much greater significance for our nation than a political stitch-up to hide the litany of lies told to the Australian people. History and economics tell us that controlling prices doesn't work. It sounds good; it actually doesn't work. The most notable in recent times was the attempt to set a floor price for wool in the eighties. When the floor price failed and was abandoned, the Australian industry was left with a stockpile of between four billion and six billion bales of wool and a debt of $2.7 billion. This was back in the days when $2.7 billion was a lot of money.

History is littered with examples. According to 'The Edict of Diocletian: A Study of Price Fixing in the Roman Empire', in the latter part of the Roman Empire a price cap on gold contributed to massive currency devaluation and inflation and a collapse of the economy. In the 1970s President Nixon announced price controls on gasoline. This resulted in a sustained national shortage and rationing. Economic history tells us that price controls dampen investment and growth, create unintended distortions, worsen poverty outcomes and cause countries to incur heavy fiscal burdens. Wiser heads in this country—the experts who have already been mentioned—are waking up to this.

News Limited commentator Terry McCrann says the cap on coal and gas 'shows zero understanding of how the electricity market actually works and even less understanding of reality'. He goes on to say:

Nowhere in this multi-billion dollar package is there the slightest effort to increase supply.

Worse, so mindbogglingly ineptly worse, the package is actually 'designed' to encourage less supply, while at the same time aiming to boost demand.

Whether you're talking eggs, milk or electricity, decreasing supply whilst increasing demand will increase price. The Australian's Henry Ergas says the legislation gives the government 'unfettered discretion to set any gas price it chooses'. In the AFR today was my favourite headline of the week: 'Labor's true spots are now on show'. The article began:

While Anthony Albanese tried to present a probusiness face to the Australian people before the federal election, eight months after coming to office, Labor's true spots are now on show. First, there was the retro industry-wide pattern bargaining workplace shake-up …

The writer goes on to say that, now they're trying to ram through the electricity bill, this is 'Labor reverting to its worst anti-business, pro-regulation, big government instincts'.

This is hardly the mantle of Hawke that the Prime Minister tried to tell us he was after.