Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member asked me about the default market offer and energy prices, and I'm more than happy to talk about default market offers, because not only did the former minister keep it secret but it gets worse. After he kept the last EMO secret, he was asked on 29 April last year, on the Deb Knight radio show, about rising power prices, which he knew about at that point but had not disclosed to the Australian people. He said, 'There's fake news in what's being said about this.' He called energy price rises 'fake news'. He kept them secret and then he misled the Australian people and denied that they were happening. That's what the former minister did. The former minister and all his colleagues, especially those from South Australia, voted for energy price rises that would have been $530 higher if it wasn't for this government's intervention.

The government acted on the circumstances in which we found those price rises occurring, making them public, making them transparent and dealing with them. Honourable members opposite prefer to keep them secret, to hide them and to not disclose them to the Australian people and then, when faced with a choice—faced with a vote—to vote for price rises.

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