Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have a crisis in this country. We have a crisis in this country on energy affordability, and we're staring down the barrel of a reliability crisis too. There are families sitting round the kitchen table right across Australia right now, from Berwick to Brisbane, from Melbourne to Mallacoota, and they are staring at an energy bill stuck to their fridge, wondering how they are going to pay that bill right now. This government has promised nearly a hundred times that we will see a $275 cut in yearly energy bills. They have not been good to their word.

There are 200,000 Australians on energy hardship plans as we speak. I spoke to one energy retailer about a week ago, who said they're getting around 150 phone calls every day from people across their database seeking energy bill relief. They are seeking hardship plans. They cannot pay the bills that they have in front of them. And that is a crisis. It is a crisis for our food banks. It is a crisis, as the member for Cook said, for charities and volunteer groups that are set up to help people at very, very difficult points in their lives.

This is an avoidable situation. Labor have induced a crisis that we're seeing in pricing Australian businesses out of the game internationally. It is hurting blue-collar workers in regional jobs. It is putting our manufacturing base so far behind the eight ball that they've got to work extra hard and extra smart just to catch up.

We've got an energy minister who very kindly came back to the parliament this week. He's been traversing the globe, lecturing other countries. Given Minister Bowen's track record in Australia, you'd think he'd be best placed to talk to other countries only about how to flatline their decarbonisation efforts, only to pontificate about skyrocketing energy bills or maybe to share a few hot takes on how to use taxpayer funds to prop up a couple of select technologies while flatly resisting calls to put every available option on the table.

I do hope, though, that, while clocking up carbon miles, Minister Bowen might take the time for a sideline chat to listen to what representatives from a few other countries, like France, Canada, Japan, India, Turkiye—I could go on—might be able to share with him on how to achieve energy reliability, energy affordability and energy sustainability. Minister Bowen might learn a few things, like how you can achieve all of those objectives on the table without shutting down coal early and while putting your foot to the floor on gas and making sure all options are on the table. That last bastion of conservatism, the Starmer Labour government in the UK, has seen under its watch what will be one of the largest nuclear power stations built in Europe. Meanwhile, in Australia, our businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water.

I went to a major meat-processing business in my electorate last week. They employ 140 local people. This business is part of a sector that plays a critical economic role nationally. It is essential to my region. I met with this business, and the first thing they talked to me about was their energy bill. It's out of control. Over the last 12 months alone, electricity costs for this business have increased by 22 per cent, and they've increased by 27 per cent across the last 24 months. Gas prices have escalated even more significantly, rising 27 per cent in the last year alone and 46 per cent over the last two years. Combined gas and electricity costs for this business have surged by 24 per cent over the last 12 months and an extraordinary 35 per cent over the last 24 months.

This is outrageous. This business is not Robinson Crusoe with its energy pain. It is an epidemic of escalating costs, and the government keeps telling Australians that we've never had it better. There's no news on when this government is going to deliver on their broken promise of $275 bill relief. Blue collar workers are hurting. Regional Australians are hurting. Working Australians are hurting. They deserve so much better than this government.

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