Mark Butler Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy
2:27 pm
My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister agree with the now Independent member for Chisholm that the government's discredited forced divestment policy is:
… totally counter to liberal values of free enterprise and small government—
and:
It will be a deterrent for future investment and won't lower electricity prices but will actually have the reverse effect.
Scott Morrison Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister
2:28 pm
The Liberal Party members in this chamber want to see electricity prices come down. We're going to side with the customers who have been paying too much and have been taken advantage of by big electricity companies. That's what our bill is designed to achieve. That's why we're taking action. It's because we want to stand by the families, small businesses and family businesses of Australia who are paying too much. The Treasurer posed a question before: why would the Labor Party not want there to be a power to take action against price gouging and the sorts of conduct that would be anticompetitive and that could lead to an increase in prices, which flows through to end consumers? Why would you be opposed to a power that would help even up the score for mums, dads and pensioners? We're not confused about that. We're quite certain about it. We know who we stand for; we stand for mums and dads and small and family businesses who are looking for a better deal from energy companies.
Mark Butler Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy
We are one minute in, and the Prime Minister still hasn't mentioned the member for Chisholm.
Mark Butler Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy
I ask the Prime Minister to be directly relevant.