Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a few moments, the Treasurer will jump up in question time and demand that the Labor Party support the National Energy Guarantee. This is despite the fact that they're unable to corral enough votes on their own side of the House to get their policy through the parliament. This has been an inglorious episode indeed. By my count they have had four energy plans in the last three years, yet they are demanding today that we buy a pig in a poke by voting in favour of a plan that they can't get through their own party room. Their four plans include the latest inglorious episode, which involved getting some of the smartest guys in Australia to put together a robust plan and then swapping it out for some of the ideas of the biggest blockhead in the coalition party—and he's sitting right behind you!

If the government really wants to do something about making power more affordable then they will dump their plan to axe the clean energy supplement. This is $8 a fortnight for singles and $14 a fortnight for couples. If they want to do something to make power more affordable in this country then they'll axe that plan. It's pretty simple. Vote for it: $8 a fortnight for singles and $14 for couples. If you want to do something about energy prices, vote in favour of this, withdraw your plan and stop playing games. (Time expired)