Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

This country is not where it should be. Australia should be one of the strongest economies in the world. We should be a global leader in productivity, competitiveness and opportunity. We should have the lowest energy prices in the developed world, not one of the highest. We should be backing small businesses and farmers, not burying them under red tape and rising costs. We should be a country that rewards hard work, not one where everyday Aussies are forced to choose between keeping the lights on or putting food on the table. Under this Labor government, Australia has gone backwards, and we've gone backwards fast. Across my electorate of Dawson, people are hurting. From cane farmers and fishers to cafe and restaurant owners, from young Australians trying to buy their first homes to pensioners in tears over their power bills, the message is clear: our country is struggling under Labor. Australians are worse off now than at any time since the Great Depression.

At the heart of this crisis is one thing: energy. My grievance is the government's approach to energy. This government has bet the house on wind and solar. It's the 'wind and solar reckless race to a renewables-only energy future' policy, stubbornly refusing to consider a broader, more balanced mix. They've rejected the commonsense options like gas, coal and even nuclear, leaving our grid vulnerable, unreliable and unaffordable. They've bet the house and lost. But, instead of admitting defeat, they've doubled down. Too proud to fess up, they hide behind spin and flash more cash to cover up the cracks, too embarrassed to come clean, and Australians keep paying the price. Energy is a central part of our economy. It is connected to everything: mining, farming, manufacturing, transport, small business and every household. When energy prices rise, the cost of everything rises with it, and that's exactly what we're seeing. Groceries, building supplies, freight, food production—every line on the family's budget has gone up. Everyday Australians trying to get ahead are being punished by this Labor government's choices. Without affordable, reliable baseload power, our economy shuts down, and you can't run a full-time economy on part-time power.

Since coming to government in 2022, Labor has overseen economic decline that touches every household. Inflation continues to erode budgets. Productivity has fallen. National debt is surging with no serious plan to rein it in. The Prime Minister promised back in the 2022 election a $275 cut to every household power bill. Where is it? In Dawson, power bills haven't fallen; they've exploded. When power prices rise, jobs disappear, businesses close, and costs flow all the way to the family dinner table. Small business is suffering too. Labor don't care. They've long turned their backs on small business. Almost every policy they've introduced makes life harder for those who employ Australians and take the biggest risk. I speak with local businesses in Dawson every week. They're not opening new locations; they are closing doors. They're not hiring; they're laying off. And they're certainly not optimistic about the future. This is what Labor has created: a climate void of optimism.

Reports from the CSIRO and Treasury confirm what Australians already know: the current path isn't working. In fact, despite the stories that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy tries to spin, the recent CSIRO report confirms that coal is currently the cheapest form of energy in Australia, yet we are winding back our coal-fired power stations while other countries are building new coal-fired power stations and investing in nuclear. And I can tell you right now that those countries all have lower power prices than Australia. Power prices are up; grid reliability is down. Investors are walking away from their major wind and hydrogen projects, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Even members of the government must be quietly questioning this failed energy policy. After all, surely the other side of the House receives power bills too.

The government is out of ideas and out of cash. Last week's so-called economic forum was nothing more than a glorified talkfest—a parade of buzzwords, platitudes and photo-ops. When the Treasurer announced the outcomes of the forum, not one word was said about energy, not one word was said about small business, not one word was said about driving down uncontrolled immigration and not one word was said about reducing taxes—it was only about creating them. While the Prime Minister and the Treasurer pat themselves on the back in Canberra, families in Dawson and across the country are sweating over their electricity bills and wondering how they can afford the weekly shop. When Labor run out of ideas, which they clearly have, as they always do, they reach for the Australian wallet. They reach for the Australian public's wallet in order to splash the cash for headlines, hoping the public are distracted long enough to forget the government's energy failures. And, because the government have left the country with nothing but a trillion dollars in debt and a bunch of IOUs, they are desperate to invent new revenue streams to pay for these headlines.

Take Labor's superannuation tax grab as an example. It's a proposed doubling of the tax rate on balances over $3 million. The plan is to apply to unrealised gains as well, which will hit farmers hard because, if the on-paper value of their farm goes up, the tax office will send them a bill. How is a farmer, who is already doing it tough, supposed to pay a tax bill on a profit that they haven't even received a cent for? If more farmers sell their farms, there'll be less Aussie produce on the shelves and higher prices at the check-outs. A change to super affects everyone, and consequences go well above a handful of millionaires. We should be a country that unlocks our full energy potential, not one that locks Australians into rising prices through wind and solar; a country that supports small business, not one that burdens it with more red tape and higher costs; a country that celebrates our agricultural producers, not one that taxes them into selling up; and a country that reduces the tax burden, not one that sneaks in stealth taxes through the back door. We should back Australia-made products.

Australia is blessed with an abundance of resources: coal, uranium, sunshine, wind, water and gas. We should be using all of them to their full potential. We should have the world's cheapest and most affordable power. Instead, electricity prices are soaring, reliability is falling and households are feeling the squeeze. The gap between what Australians pay for power and what we should be paying just keeps growing. Under this Labor government, Australians are paying more, working harder and receiving less. Many Australians feel lucky just to be able to keep the lights on, lucky to be able to afford to put food on their tables and lucky if they can manage to hold on to a few dollars at the end of the week. That's not being lucky; that's just surviving.

Will the government ever admit that their wind and solar only path is not the right direction for Australia? Will they ever allow for a sensible and balanced energy mix? If we get the energy mix and balance right, then a lot of Australia's problems will go away. We need to change the direction on energy because this country is not where it should be. So I'm calling on the Albanese Labor government to come good, look after the people that they were elected to represent, give them cheap, reliable and affordable power and stop sending their households and their businesses to the wall. It's not a fair go, and Australia is the country of a fair go. Bring back the coalition.

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