Darren Chester Gippsland, National Party
3:02 pm
My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the report from the St Vincent de Paul Society showing that combined gas and electricity bills for the average Victorian household have soared above $4,000 in parts of Victoria, including in my electorate of Gippsland, and average household gas bills will increase by about $675, or 45 per cent, this year. Why have these households still not seen any relief? Prime Minister, why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister
I thank the member for Gippsland for his question and I congratulate him on his re-elevation to the front bench. I'm not sure if the member for Gippsland was here in December, because he did represent Australia very well—with the member for Dunkley, I know—at the United Nations.
Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this
Government Member:
A government member interjecting
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister
And he wants to go back! If I sat with the mob who voted against cheaper prices, I'd want to go back too. But this is what the Reserve Bank of Australia put out last week about gas prices:
Wholesale electricity and gas prices declined in response to the announcement of the temporary price caps on domestic gas and thermal coal in the Energy Price Relief Plan on 9 December 2022.
Milton Dick Speaker
The member for Hume will cease interjecting. The member for Barker will leave the chamber under 94(a).
The member for Barker then left the chamber.
Anthony Albanese Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister
The quote goes on:
Futures markets now suggest that wholesale electricity and gas prices will be lower in 2023 and 2024 than previously expected …
That is exactly what the Reserve Bank of Australia said last year. It's a pity that those opposite voted against that measure.
Paul Fletcher Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy
Milton Dick Speaker
The Prime Minister will take a break. The Prime Minister has concluded his answer.