Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

My recollection, and this is going back some time, is that one of the reasons for the lesser increase in South Australia is that South Australia has a higher proportion of renewable energy, so therefore you see a lower level of increase. But the figures that were released by the various states and territories about the increase in prices for electricity were pretty much precisely where the Treasury modelling assumed they would be, so around a 10 per cent increase. As the senator would know, unlike the approximately 50 per cent increase that we have seen ex carbon price over the past few years in electricity prices, of course this price increase is associated with the provision of increases to family tax benefit pension as well as tax cuts, all of which the coalition are asserting they will in fact roll back and remove—if they are to be believed on that.

I would make the point to the senator that if he is concerned about the pricing of electricity I would assume he would be primarily concerned by the largest component increase in the price of electricity, which is not carbon—which is in fact investment in poles and wires. If he is so concerned about the cost of living for Australian families, I wonder why he voted against the Schoolkids Bonus—why he voted against putting money into the pockets of Australian families to help them with the cost of schooling their children. The reality is that those opposite talk about worrying about cost of living but they come in here and vote against working families when the chips are down.