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

It's always the same from those opposite: it's all bluster and bluff. It's all looking backwards and pointing the finger, and not quite realising that they're in government. They're more interested in virtue-signalling than they are in actually delivering any plans to the Australian people and to those Australian families who are doing it so tough at the moment.

What we've seen in the New South Wales state campaign today is just another example. The much-lauded electric bus that was developed in Western Sydney and which was going to take the Labor wannabe Premier, his team, the media and staff around Sydney to campaign has broken down. The bus that is supposed to have a 300-kilometre radius travelled 60 kays and then broke down. So if you want to talk about irony, a diesel bus had to come out and pick everybody up!

We know about those opposite and their safeguard mechanism. I know that this is take note, and that we're here to take note of answers. Senator Farrell, I say this with much love and affection: there were the ums and the ahs, the bluff and the bluster. The prevarication was really quite something to behold! It was an Academy Award-winning performance in not answering questions. I think that some of your colleagues have taken it on, because I've listened to a couple of the speeches that your colleagues have made in response today—no wonder the galleries have emptied! I have never heard a bigger load of rot, with people saying nothing, addressing nothing and not putting forward an idea to the Australian public. All the Labor Party is capable of doing is putting forward broken promises, and the Australian electorate is starting to wake up to that. But the bus is just a great example of a broken-down opposition in the state of New South Wales as they approach their election this weekend. We had the broken-down electric bus that didn't go anywhere as a reflection of those opposite.

It's also a reflection of the plans and policies they put forward before the election, which became the broken promises and the litany of lies that have been told to the electorate since then. We know that we went into this election with the Voldemort number of 275—the number that shall not speak its name if you're a member of the ALP. The Australian people were told 97 times that their power bills would come down by $275. We all know now that that was a furphy. We were told there would be no changes to superannuation—not modest changes, not tinkering around the edges—but no changes to superannuation. We were told that there'd be no changes to franking credits. They weren't going to make the mistake that Minister Bowen made in the 2019 election: 'If you don't like our policies, don't vote for us.' That was very sound advice, which the electorate took up.

They learnt from that mistake, so they lied to the Australian people about franking credits. Now we're looking at a situation where you can't pay a dividend once capital raising has occurred. We have farmers absolutely petrified, because these 'modest changes' mean that family farms that have passed from generation to generation and that are part of self-managed super funds are under threat, because of this absolutely economically reckless and ridiculous tax on an unrealised asset. For those watching on the broadcast, that means something that's not sold. It's actually a paper profit. If you own land that you have worked hard on and invested in and saved for your family, and it somehow tips over $3 million on paper—it hasn't been sold and you don't have money in the bank; it's just on paper—you will have to sell it to pay the tax bill. That is the grab from those opposite, who hate retirees and hate farmers. They have their hearts set on destroying self-managed super funds, because they union mates make up the bulk of the big super funds.

Of course, the biggest issue facing Australians is cost-of-living pressures. The energy promise was broken. There's no $275 reduction. In fact, from 1 July this year we will see a further 20 per cent increase on gas and electricity bills. We know there will be gas shortages, which will create further pressure. Whenever you do market interventions around price caps, you actually make it worse in the long run. That's what we've seen with this government. They have no plan. What they have is lots of absolutely unfounded and ridiculous rhetoric pointing back to the previous government. The word COVID never passes their lips. According to Senator Polley, we had calm economic waters, because COVID was calm! This is an insult to every Australian family, and your rhetoric isn't making one iota of difference to a family budget.

Question agreed to.