Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Belatedly but honourably, I withdraw. We will give you a promo should we ever get the opportunity to do so, Bill—do not worry. For everyday Australians, the latest ABS data is extremely revealing. It reveals that electricity prices were up 15.7 per cent on average last year, December on December. This was without an emissions trading scheme. It was the result of state organised price increases—overwhelmingly state Labor price increases. Water and sewerage rose 14.1 per cent on average last year. These are not discretionary items. Electricity is not a discretionary item for an everyday household. It is not a discretionary item for a small business—a coffee shop or a restaurant. It is not a discretionary item for the building industry. They need these inputs.

Last year electricity went up 15.7 per cent, water and sewerage went up 14.1 per cent, gas went up nine per cent and, for families, there were parts of education that were up 7½ per cent, particularly preschool and primary education. The fundamental point here is that it was discretionary items, such as audiovisual components—plasma TVs and so on—which fell. They fell 12.4 per cent. Because of the very strong Australian dollar, overseas holidays also fell 4.4 per cent.

What we found was that, whilst the headline inflation rate, which the Treasurer chose to focus on, was a little over two per cent, the real impact on Australian households was far, far greater. This is because the things that go into the everyday mix of the household budget rose enormously—none greater than the nearly 16 per cent rise in electricity last year. These are essential items for Australian families.

In question time, the Prime Minister was confused and befuddled about what the real impact on electricity prices of his own ETS would be. For reasons that everyone is very familiar with, the Prime Minister has not been under pressure for the last 12 months on the detailed items in his emissions trading scheme.

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