Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Trade and Tourism (Senator Farrell) and the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked today.

An opposition senator: And not answered.

And not answered. It's almost like Voldemort—the 'number that cannot be named': $275. Remember that amount that was going to come off everyone's energy bill and those cost-of-living pressures that were going to be 'easy street' for all Australians under the Albanese government? We did warn them. We did warn Australians that it won't be easy under Albanese. Well, let me tell you, it's getter tougher and tougher every day. It's tougher today with another 0.25 basis point rise in interest rates. Remember when you told us that there was going to be a reduction in interest rates under Labor? Instead, they're going in the other direction, putting more and more stress on everyday Australians and their families.

Remember it was mentioned 97 times that $275 was going to be saved from energy bills? We now know—and it's being acknowledged through gritted teeth—that energy bills are going to continue to rise this year, by over 50 per cent in some instances. And what are those opposite looking to do? Now they're in government they actually don't know what to do, because they are pulling switches and rolling out policies that are making a bad situation worse. A bad situation is constantly being made worse by those opposite and their inability to make a policy decision that will actually benefit Australians and reduce cost-of-living pressures on family household budgets. Instead, those opposite are so fixated on policies that are actually creating more and more problems for Australian households.

We know that a raft of projects in our resources sector are being shelved. The market intervention that is being done by those opposite has ensured that investment in the resources sector is going elsewhere. And now they want to talk about a safety mechanism. We know what's going to happen there. We're going to see more and more pressures on everyday Australians and their household budgets as the cost of everything goes up. But what they don't understand is that, as they put these pressures onto Australian businesses, they will then have to pass those on to Australian consumers, adding to the inflationary pressure. For those of you that need an 'Economics 101' book, just let me know; I'll pop up to the library for you and send it over. When you've got these inflationary pressures being added to, and then you start charging a carbon tax—because we know you're completely wedded to that—let me tell you what's going to happen to a whole lot of industries and what's already happening in a number of industries as they look at the government and know they have no clue about what they're doing but are going to impose more and more costs onto business. Investment is going elsewhere. Companies, and manufacturers in particular, are starting to go offshore. So, under your guise of, 'This is better for emissions,' and, 'We're going to lower emissions,' all you're doing is sending them overseas to countries who have less regulation. You're killing off Australian jobs, all the while putting increased inflationary pressures on Australian families, who are currently struggling under the weight of mortgages, 800,000 of which are about to move onto the new variable rate, which is going to see so much pressure go onto these households.

But don't worry; we'll just listen to Mr Albanese talk about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, or we'll spend, or waste, an afternoon reading 6,000 words from Mr Chalmers, the Treasurer, who is looking to take Australia back to a form of socialism that is just unbelievable. I thought he was in the Labor right. I didn't know you guys let them in when they were full-blown communists. But here we are, reading something in the Monthlybecause let's speak to Northcote and Newtown, those who read the Monthly, as I think Joe Hildebrand referred to this morning—which was a faux intellectual episode, rather than being focused on how to help Australian families. The Treasurer spent his summer penning an essay for the Monthly, which is, quite frankly, an absolute waste of an academic exercise and has just proven that 'Chalmernomics' is going to take this country backwards and destroy manufacturing. We know that you want more government intervention, but this is now getting to the point of the ridiculous. This is absolutely unbelievable—6,000 words. It's a pity he didn't write 6,000 words on what he was going to do to help everyday Australians.