Gerard Rennick (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support this motion. This motion is 100 per cent correct. Prime Minister Albanese said a number of times that he was going to lower power prices. He didn't. But do you know what? That's yesterday's news. That's yesterday's news in the sense of what we are going to do about it.

I have to call out my good friend and former colleague Senator Scarr here. I'm disappointed he's not in the chamber to hear this, but I hope he's listening. Senator Scarr is someone with a finance background who should be talking about the solutions. He is better than just whingeing and wailing. I have to say one refreshing thing about being up in this end of the chamber is that I no longer have to sit there and beat out the same old boring talking points about how bad Labor is.

You know what? I've got news for you two major parties: the Australian people are sick of government, period. They see it as toxic, weak and insipid. What they want for a change is some politicians to come out and offer some solutions. We can all sit in this chamber day in, day out and beat each other up, but the people out there listening to this want to know what we are going to do about it. In business, in the real world, this is not the way things are done. It is not the way business is conducted. We sit down and we look for solutions, so I say to Senator Scarr and the Liberal Party—with the greatest respect to the Labor Party, I joined the Liberal Party, so I expect more from them—lift your game. Come in here and talk about your solutions and how you're going to provide better opportunities for your children. I see Senator Scarr and Senator McDonald sitting here whingeing, and then there is People First. We are a better option because we've got solutions.