Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

We heard much in question time today about delivery—the 'D' word—from the Prime Minister and his backbench, many questions and many non-answers about delivery. But I want to remind the House what the Prime Minister has actually delivered this year. What has actually been delivered is: a higher cost of living, higher power prices and higher inflation. And, sadly, Australians are looking down the barrel of higher interest rates next year.

While we hear about the cost-of-living relief, there really is not anything that could come close to the pain that struggling households are experiencing, and I wish this Prime Minister and this government took these things seriously. Because instead of focusing on the things that matter, they are focusing on things that do not matter. The real issue that does not matter right now is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and his traversing the globe in the interests of his new appointment as the full-time COP president, leaving behind a part-time energy grid. It is just not good enough.

We have a plan that is affordable and responsible—affordable energy and responsible emissions reduction—because that is how you bring down the cost of energy in this country. We want to focus on energy because we understand in the Liberals and Nationals that when energy is unaffordable everything is unaffordable. Look at the trifecta of failures that we are facing: prices are going up, reliability is going down and emissions are flatlining. That is a trifecta of failure.

While you look at the Labor party with targets they cannot possibly meet at a cost that Australians cannot possibly afford, you know that this energy policy is a train wreck. So instead of a minister dedicated to the task, what is he doing? He is receiving calendar invites from 180 countries in COP. He would be looking through them right now; he is not in the chamber. Where will he start? Maybe he will start with Azerbaijan because that is where the last president was from. And you might as well start with 'A' because there is a long list of countries to get through—180. He will check in with the president of Azerbaijan, and then maybe he will go to the Iberian Peninsula just to look at what happens to a full renewables grid when it crashes, but he will not see it quite that way. Then maybe he will squeeze in a visit to Davos for a fireside chat on hydrogen, over to Houston to lecture big oil, perhaps back to the Amazon, bring the band back together in Belem, and then triumphantly arrive at the end of the year in Turkiye. I don't know whether you arrive when you are a COP president. Maybe you have your entourage, there is pomp and circumstance—

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