Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Capital Brewing Co. is a local success story but, under the Albanese Labor government, it's suffering from skyrocketing costs. Co-founder and managing director, Laurence Kain, stated: 'Our costs have risen almost out of control. Our electricity bill has gone from $4½ thousand a month to almost $12,000 a month over the last two years.' He said that yesterday. Prime Minister, why are regional small businesses paying the price for Labor's economic incompetence?

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

ALBANESE (—) (): I thank the member for his question. I assume he is referring to Capital Brewing here in Canberra.

Thank you for that clarification, member for Riverina. They produce a very fine product—I give them that. We know that this is one of the reasons why we are dealing with energy price relief, not just for individuals but for small businesses. Those opposite have opposed the tax cuts for everyone who works at Capital Brewing, have opposed the other support, including, one would assume, lower wages. Many of the people at Capital Brewing will be on low wages or award wages. They are likely to benefit from the increase in wages that we see, and that's a positive—

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

The member for Grey is interjecting not from his seat.

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

And that's a positive thing as well. But I hope that the member for Riverina, if he goes down to the Capital Brewing joint just down the road that he tells me he's familiar with, tells them it'll be okay because we'll have a nuclear reactor somewhere in 2040. That'll fix it!