Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

There's no doubt that every government comes to office having made promises. The coalition came to government and it made some promises: greater access to medicines, delivered; lower taxes, delivered; lower unemployment, delivered; more funding for infrastructure, delivered; more funding for mental health, delivered; more investment for energy assets, delivered. But the Albanese Labor government has a very different track record with its promises.

Let's have a look at the track record of the Albanese Labor government after only about nine months in office and ask whether or not they've delivered or they've broken their promises. They promised cheaper mortgages. Broken. They promised lower inflation. Broken. They promised no changes to superannuation. Broken. They promised no changes to franking credits. Broken. They promised no new taxes. Broken. But here is my favourite of all—my favourite broken promise so far, favourite because it exposes the rank hypocrisy of the Labor Party, but it's not a favourite in terms of me enjoying it, because the Australian people are the ones who feel the pain—the Albanese government promised the Australian people that household power bills would be reduced by $275. Has that been delivered or has it been broken? Broken. Absolutely broken.

In the lead-up to last year's federal election every single member opposite, every single member on the government benches, was very happy to share social media posts of the Prime Minister committing to the Australian public that he would ensure their power prices came down by $275—every single member of the Labor Party and every single senator. Yet here they are today still knowing they have broken a promise and they will not deliver that. Instead of delivering a $275 reduction in power bills, since they came to government the average power bill has increased by $700. Think about that: an increase of $700 for households. You promise a decrease by nearly $300 and you deliver an increase by $700. What's the variation? What's the difference?

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