Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister is the Jerry Seinfeld of the Australian parliament—just without the humour! He is all talk—all yada yada yada—but no action. This is greatly demonstrated by his inaction on electricity prices.

What did we see yesterday? We saw yet more talk and yet more hot air from the Prime Minister. He seems to have forgotten that he has been in power for four years. In those four years, wholesale energy prices have doubled because of an investment strike, because this mob can't develop a sensible energy policy. Who suffers because of this? My constituents and constituents in every electorate around this country, who are seeing price rises right now. In New South Wales it has been a 20 per cent price rise. This is hitting my electorate hard. It is hitting the residents of Windale hard, the poorest suburb in all of New South Wales. This is all because the Prime Minister doesn't have the guts to stand up to his party room; to stand up to the fossils in his party room—fossils like the member for Hughes, who is in the chamber—to stand up and say what Finkel has recommended; to support a clean energy target; and to unlock billions of dollars of investment that will reduce pressure on electricity prices.

Doing stuff with retailers is good, and I hope it leads to something concrete. But if the Prime Minister wants real action he needs to stand up to his dinosaurs, support a clean energy target and get serious about energy in this country.