Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Colbeck refers to the Powering Australia plan, which we are implementing. I reject the assertion being put forward by Senator Colbeck, and I would similarly say to those opposite: why did you hide the electricity price increase before the election? What was that about? Was it because you didn't want to tell people? Was it because the member for Hume actually didn't want people to know that under your watch, with all of the energy leaving the system and not enough being replaced, there was going to be a significant increase in electricity prices? When you got confronted with that news, what did the member for Hume do? He hid it until a few days after the election. We are being upfront with the Australian people. Where there are challenges—we've seen them; we saw them in December, and we saw them in the budget—we've responded responsibly and carefully, and all those opposite did was oppose it, just as they oppose everything else we do.