Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

This time of year, as we tend towards Christmas, we all think about those who are less fortunate than us. We think about the struggling pensioners who are making tough choices about how they are going to make ends meet. They want to give presents to their grandchildren. They are looking at mounting bills. The electricity bill comes in and, as it rises by up to 40 per cent, they have to make tough choices. Some families and households have to make choices about whether they buy food or afford rent or pay their electricity bill or turn on the air conditioner. The same decisions are made by low-income earners and those on a fixed income. It's a challenge all around the country.

So, while I understand the hectoring from members of the government in defence of not delivering on their $275 reduction on electricity bills, the lived experience of Australians from this is real. There are so many Australians who are doing it tough right now through cost-of-living pain and, instead of getting a $275 reduction in their electricity bill, promised by the Albanese government, they've lived with the reality of increases by up to 40 per cent. Small businesses are struggling. We have record small business insolvency. They've seen increases of their electricity bills by up to 80 per cent.

It is no surprise that so many small businesses and so many households are doing it tough. We got data this week from the Australian Bureau of Statistics that talked explicitly about the problems with inflation. Despite the Treasurer crowing previously that he had combated inflation and we had gotten to an end, it persists. Also high interest rates are persisting. That's when people face tough choices about their future.

It's easy for the member for Dickson to get up in this parliament and say, 'Yes, there is more rooftop solar on houses in some coalition seats.' I do accept that. Part of the reason is that people in low-income areas in particular live in apartments and they don't face the same options and choices as people who own their own homes. This is a debate about making sure low-income earners have choices and are able to afford fair pathways. People who live in apartments don't have those same choices, particularly when they can't afford upfront costs. I know the member for Dickson's answer when we have problems with cost-of-living pressures is, 'Let them eat solar batteries, let them eat solar panels and let them eat asbestos filled wind farms,' but that is not the answer. People need financial relief, and the only solution the government has is expenditure to push prices up. This isn't a plan that Australians need. Their answer is to just constantly talk about an energy transition that does not do what they claim it will do, which is push down prices.

What we need is an energy addition which actually contributes to the future of our country by building new energy. Yes, we need to be technology neutral. We need to build a pathway for new generation that takes advantage of our existing networks and distribution and, of course, factors in emissions as well. That's because the best pathway to achieve lower emissions is to lower energy prices. When people cannot afford their electricity bills, concern around emissions falls by comparison. It's always been thus. It's a failure of this government to understand how important the link between energy prices and support for emissions cuts is. They go hand in hand.

At the last election, the Australian people went and took on trust that this government understood these important issues, but what's become increasingly important for so many Australians is how much the government is blind and deaf to their concerns, how blind and deaf they are to the real financial pain that people are living. Their only answer has been to spend more money and borrow from the future to use debt spending and push up inflation, which has only perpetuated the problems that Australians are now living with. We just heard it from the members for Dickson, Cooper and so many other electorates. When Australians are saying that we need to confront the problem of electricity prices, the answer has been: let them eat solar panels. Let them eat batteries. Let them eat asbestos filled wind farms.

This is not right. We need a pathway where we can get Australians to cheaper bills through energy addition. We need a pathway that gets cheaper bills now. More importantly, the cost of not doing so forces people on low incomes, which once upon a time the Labor party claimed they represented, to continue to live with the suffering and pain not just this Christmas but beyond and into 2026—and it won't be a happy new year.

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