Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Electricity prices are going up, and, when they go up, two things happen. The first thing is you'll pay more for your product because the manufacturing cost, the cost of doing business, has gone up 40 per cent from when this government first came into power. When electricity prices go up 40 per cent, business has got two choices: absorb the cost or pass it on. If it's getting passed on, you in the gallery will pay more for your product. The other thing that happens when electricity prices go up is that our debt gets bigger. We're screaming towards a trillion dollars worth of debt and we're pushing that debt onto the next generation of Australians, who are going to have to pay it.

In my electorate, the largest contributor to GDP is agriculture. For packing sheds that pack and value-add to the likes of corn, onions, cauliflower, cabbages, broccolini and various other vegetables, when their energy costs increase 40 per cent, they've two choices. They can put it onto their cost of the product, which has got an inflationary effect for you, or they can go broke. There are more businesses going broke today under this government than there has been. When my growers and irrigators water their crop, they're water intensive. Their costs go up 40 per cent. They're not going to be here under this government.

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