Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) condemns the Government for its failures regarding energy affordability and policy transparency; and

(2) notes that:

(a) Australians were promised a $275 cut to their power bills but under the Government households are instead paying on average $1,300 more;

(b) energy bills have already surged close to 40 per cent under the Government;

(c) the Government has broken its most basic promise to the Australian people; and

(d) the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water advised the Minister for Climate Change and Energy within the Incoming Government Brief of 'a further significant increase in retail electricity prices next financial year'.

It's incredibly important that we debate this motion because it goes to the heart of whether governments should look the Australian people in the eye and tell them something which is 100 per cent completely untrue, and that is what Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen did. They said to the Australian people that they would reduce their power bills by $275 by the end of this year. Now, who thinks that that in any way is going to be achieved? It's not going to be achieved, and the energy minister should face up to the Australian people and say, 'I looked you in the eye, I said I would do this, and now it is clear that I cannot do it.' He should admit that he has 100 per cent, completely failed. As a matter of fact, what we've seen through the last CPI data last week is that the complete opposite is occurring. That complete opposite is hurting Australian households, hurting individuals and hurting industry.

We sadly saw this when it comes to Tomago. Now, 5,000 jobs are at risk because the government cannot get its energy policy right. Can I say this: it's not only that they didn't get the $275 right. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy received an incoming minister's brief in May which said that energy prices are going to rise. It said they will continue to increase. And now we have the minister not wanting to release that incoming ministerial brief and taking the absurd measure of trying to stop it being released by saying to the Senate, 'I'm going to defy your orders.' He's defying the Senate to stop it getting released. Why do you think the minister doesn't want that brief released? To start with, the bit he did release had so many bits of paper that looked like that—100 per cent blank—it wasn't funny.

Why do you think the minister is trying to prevent that ministerial brief being released? I have a suspicion. I think it says that gas prices but in particular electricity prices are going to continue to double under this government. I think that's what it says. If it doesn't say that, I look forward to the minister releasing the fully redacted brief in its entirety and saying, 'No, it doesn't say that.' But, if he won't, then, given that prices have doubled under them, why wouldn't it say they will double again? The policies haven't changed at all. They're not focused on energy affordability as their No. 1 priority at all. As a matter of fact, the minister has spent the last three months trying to get the next COP here in Australia rather than prioritising energy affordability. I say this to the Australian people: energy affordability will be the opposition's No. 1 priority because we know how important it is to our nation.

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