Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's time the Prime Minister stopped blaming everyone else and accepted the fact that as the leader of the government he is responsible for the problem that we have with energy prices. Remember when this government came into power five years ago and they promised that power prices would go down? What happened? They went up. Average prices in Melbourne are $700 dearer than they were in 2013. The National Party, the Canberra National Party, sit here and want to attack farmers who want to protect their land from fracking. They sit here and say, 'Oh, coal is the future. Coal is the future.' I look forward to the member for Grey coming in here and saying, 'Gee, the Finkel report says, "No, it's not."'

What we actually find is that the price for coal is low because you never, ever include the cost to the environment. You never, ever include the longevity that it takes to clean up after it's been done. We've seen 4,000 megawatts of power lost under this lot while they were sleeping, first with Prime Minister Abbott and then with Prime Minister Turnbull. Both have sat here and said, 'It's not our fault. We are just the leaders of the government.' We asked them, 'Why don't you pull the gas trigger? Why don't you do that?' They know that they can't because the Deputy Prime Minister is in the High Court because he doesn't even know if he is an Australian! He doesn't even know if he is legally allowed to be in here. It's time that we got a Prime Minister in this country who stood up for Australia and no more years of 'mendacious Mal' and this government's false claims.

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