House debates Matters of Public Importance

Albanese Government

Wednesday, 16 September 2026 House of Representatives

Kevin Hogan

Kevin Hogan Page, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House

3:42 pm

I will remember that. What's happened, of course, is that the risk-reward ratio used to be that, if you had a go in Australia, you got the reward. But the changes to capital gains tax mean that that has killed off the entrepreneurial spirit in this country. And those opposite—not the rest of the world, the Strait of Hormuz or anything like that—have been at fault for the decision; it's the government opposite. They that sit opposite have to own that. That's one thing.

Energy prices, Deputy Speaker, as you know, have gone up. They keep going up. And a lot of that is the result of the decisions and the policies of the government. There's net zero. The classic one this week—Deputy Speaker, you would have heard this—is that the energy minister has now said he was never into the hype of green hydrogen. Well, gee, he spent $9 billion of taxpayers money on that hype. I'd hate to think, if the climate change minister believed in green hydrogen, how much money he would have put into it, given he doesn't believe in it, has said it's all hype and put $9 billion into it. Again, this is taxpayers' money. This isn't Monopoly. This is $9 billion of taxpayer money that has gone into projects that aren't going to happen. Through the whole process of this Labor government, energy prices have gone up.

I just remind those opposite that the two biggest emitters in the world are China and America—I'll just throw in India as a big emitter as well. Those three countries are not signed up to net zero by 2050. And you might just remind yourselves of that when you keep spending taxpayer money on trying to achieve a goal that the big emitters aren't. Also remember that when the government makes those policies, it is adding a cost to energy bills across Australia. That's why there's no surprise that you have companies like Tomago, a business that I know you know well, Deputy Speaker, and a lot of big energy users like that being unable to afford their energy bill. Things aren't good. The government needs to wake up to it.

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