Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGrath for his question. I do not follow power prices closely enough to be able to answer the question. I am not sure that there's any person in the chamber who so closely watches power prices that they are able to get that answer.

What I can say is this, Senator McGrath. I did say something similar yesterday. It is the objective of the Albanese government to put downward pressure on power prices so that Australian consumers, householders but also Australian businesses, don't have to pay the high electricity prices that have resulted from your years and years of neglect in this space. We want Australian consumers and businesses to be paying less for their power prices. The things that we have done have included the cap that we have put in place. Firstly, it wasn't easy to make that decision. It wasn't easy to get it through this parliament, because your party opposed all of the changes that might have put downward pressure on electricity prices. So I think it's a little bit rich for you to be coming into this question time and asking these questions when we are in this situation as a result of your neglect. (Time expired)