Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister promised to lower our power bills, but instead he has simply lowered the standard of living. In a country as resource rich as ours, turning on the lights should not feel like a criminal act against the family budget. Yet under this government electricity bills have become a tax on existence. We're not talking about extravagant luxuries; we're talking about the basics of survival—light, heat and the ability to keep food cold. Yet under this government, electricity bills continue to climb, adding to the crushing cost-of-living crisis that families in my electorate of Dawson are struggling to manage.

The social impact is stark. Families are being forced to choose between paying their power bills and putting food on the table. This is not a choice any Australian should ever have to make. High energy costs are threatening jobs and livelihoods across our whole nation, and these are the human costs of Labor's broken promises. Let's look at the cold hard facts. Australians were promised a $275 cut in their power bills. That was the headline. That was the hook. But under this Labor government households are instead paying on average $1,300 more. Energy bills have already increased by close to 40 per cent, and this Labor government has broken its most basic promise to the Australian people. Worst of all, they knew it was coming. The department of energy advised the minister of further significant increases in retail electricity prices, yet this government pushed ahead with the same failing policies. Our manufacturers are being strangled. They aren't being beaten by better products. They're being beaten by competitors who have access to cheaper electricity overseas. This government is making our local industries pay more and produce less.

Australians have been let down by this government. They were promised cheaper power. The reality is a 40 per cent price increase. They were promised a decrease. The reality is a $1,300 increase. This government said the renewables would lower the power bills. Instead, they have pushed prices through the roof and delivered no meaningful emissions progress. Without the farmland locked up for carbon credits, emissions today are exactly the same as when the coalition left office. After more than three years of hollow slogans, nothing has changed except the elevated price of electricity. The only thing this government has successfully delivered is a darker future.

We often hear the Minister for Climate Change and Energy tout the government's home batteries scheme as a success. At question time, he loves to tell us how many batteries people are buying. But how can a family who can't afford to eat pay for a battery? How is a pensioner expected to find $15,000 for a battery when they're struggling to buy a loaf of bread? This government is using taxpayers' money to subsidise a luxury item that only the wealthy can afford. Meanwhile, the vulnerable are left to sweat. They sweat over the cost of their next power bill, and they sweat through summer because they can't afford to turn their aircon on.

Then, let's address the elephant in the room. What happens to these batteries when they inevitably fail in a few years? There is nowhere to recycle them. Currently, large lithium batteries are being sent to Melbourne, where they sit in storage until they're shipped to Singapore. This government claims to protect the environment, but its own policies are driving the country towards environmental catastrophe while bankrupting the nation in the process. This government is creating a toxic landfill and has no plan and no clue about how to manage it.

Australia is one of the most resource-rich nations on the planet. Yet this government would rather export our own resources so that other countries can enjoy cheap, reliable power, while making life harder and more expensive for everyday Australians. This government is shipping away our nation's prosperity while our citizens sit in the dark. No family, no business and no community should be collateral damage from this government's ideological net zero experiment. It's time to restore power, it's time to restore the promise and it's time to restore protection to the people who are keeping this nation running. Australians are living under an Albanese Labor created cost-of-living crisis. Labor needs to do better.

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