Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Exactly. I know the appropriate accountability should be there in terms of disclosing what accommodation you use and where that has come from, and that has been done in this case. But as for the question to be asked whether Senator Conroy and Mr Burke should have disclosed that they were there together, please know I do not want that to be a new standard for parliament. Heavens above that we should have to all make such disclosures. I would be happy to myself, but I do not want to ask that of all my colleagues.

One of the other topics that was debated in this question time was the question of superannuation. Senator Cormann asked if the Labor government does think that those who can afford to put $25,000 a year into their superannuation are rich. Personally, I would not necessarily say that such people are rich but under some circumstances they may be and under other circumstances they may not be. Whether you have got $25,000 that you have the capacity to invest says nothing about the rest of your overall wealth and whether you are rich or not. But I do know that we in the Labor government have been focused on making sure we have good, progressive superannuation policies, which means we have been right to be focused on helping people on lower incomes make savings and contributions to their superannuation. That is exactly what we have been getting on and doing.

We also debated in question time electricity prices and how the carbon price has been passed through in increased electricity prices. You see in both of these questions the absolute shallowness of the opposition on this. If you remove the carbon price and if you remove the tax on mining, then things like the increase in superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent and the compensation that has been passed on to households for increased electricity prices will not exist anymore. They will be simply gone. There is a complete policy vacuum from the opposition on these questions.

Our ministers were asked by senators opposite about the impact of electricity price increases on the dairy industry. We have compensated households, in particular needy households, for any price increases that are passed on. It is expected that some sectors of the economy will have to pass on electricity price increases, but that is in very stark contrast to states like Western Australia where we have seen a 60 per cent increase in electricity prices. (Time expired)