Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. It's been 430 days since the Prime Minister first promised a $275 cut to power bills, a promise repeated on 97 occasions. This promise hasn't been delivered. Instead, power bills, along with mortgages and grocery costs, have all risen sharply under this Labor government. Why do Australian families have to pay more under Labor?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I welcome all the members back to parliament for the 2023 sittings. very much, Mr Speaker. I'm pleased that the Leader of the Opposition has raised this issue as the first question. And I'm surprised that he hasn't yet raised his views that he held previously, where he actually committed to:

I believe we should have a Royal Commission into the electricity companies as well as fuel companies.

He went on to say:

There's something that stinks about these electricity companies and fuel companies and if we can get to the bottom of it I think we can get a better outcome for consumers.

You would expect that, given the senior position that the Leader of the Opposition held at that time in 2018, something might have happened. In 2019, nothing happened. In 2020, 2021, 2022, they had 22 different policies announced and none of them delivered. It was just like when the Leader of the Opposition was out there campaigning for a royal commission into electricity companies as well as fuel companies: nothing happened. But, of course, when it comes to energy, we did have a debate here in December. We brought the parliament back, and we brought it back to have a debate over whether we would take action—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left! The member for Page will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

against the major companies and make sure that there was price relief for consumers and for businesses. But those opposite—

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those opposite went against price relief and voted against it, in spite of the fact that people like the former CEO of Shell said the following—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. What price relief are you talking about, Prime Minister?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat. The Prime Minister is in order.

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! Members on my right! Standing order 104 is very clear: answers must be relevant to the question. The Prime Minister is talking about energy prices and energy policy—exactly what the question was about. He is in order. I give him the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And we intervened into the normal market processes because there were extraordinary times, and the former CEO of Shell, Mr van Beurden, said this:

You cannot have a market that behaves in such a way—logically and effectively and everything else—that it's going to damage a significant part of society … One way or another there needs to be government intervention.

We were prepared to intervene; they weren't. They opposed it, like they voted against their own policies that they've introduced when it comes to energy.

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my left! The House will come to order so I can hear the member for Dunkley in silence. The member for Dunkley has the call.