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

My question is to the Prime Minister. In his first speech to parliament following the election, the Prime Minister promised to 'fulfil our promises and prove worthy of the trust of the Australian people'. That was on 27 February 2022. Why won't the Prime Minister reaffirm his solemn election promise to cut power prices by $275 every year? If the war in Ukraine is his excuse, why did he continue to make his promise 28 times after Russia had gone into Ukraine? Why is this Prime Minister so out of touch, and why do Australian families always pay more under Labor?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Come on, Miss Daisy!

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

The member for Wannon will withdraw that comment.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

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

I say to the member for Wannon: he might need to explain that one to me. In terms of inflation—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Barker will cease clapping. Order! Members on my left.

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

I'm asked about small things, as they say. The fact is that those opposite like to talk about the cost of living and energy prices as if nothing happened on their watch. But the truth is that inflation, which is feeding into higher prices, had occurred before the change of government. Indeed, inflation had taken off before Labor took office. The CPI jumped 2.1 per cent in the March 2022 quarter. The highest increase, the largest quarterly rise, in this century occurred on their watch. What they also know is that energy prices were going up because the default market offer had already been handed to the government and they chose to keep it secret. They not only chose to keep it secret; they chose to introduce a special regulation to keep it secret before the election. They are the circumstances which we inherited when we came to office. Since then what we've been doing is taking action to lower prices. The action that we've taken, such as the Energy Price Relief Plan of $1.5 billion, those opposite voted against.