Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have had a look at the provisions that you quote as well. Obviously so have some other people. They relate to if somebody is making largely a false or misleading claim. As I understand it, they are not that dissimilar to a lot of the bits that were put around the GST, for when people make false or misleading claims about the GST. There were always going to be some penalties associated with that. More specifically, my question is really related to outside of anyone making a false or misleading claim—for example, if I am running a business. I am going to use grocery store X for the purpose of this example. If the energy production costs go down, as you believe they will—and you have put a legislative requirement in for them to go down, and I accept that; that is part of the bill—there is no legislative requirement in this legislation that I pass on those costs, is there? Is the argument you have made—it is an argument that other people in your party and the government have made—that competitive tension is enough and there is no need for there to be any requirement for anyone to pass the savings on? You quote parts of the bill that relate to when people make misleading claims. I accept they are there, and they should be there. What worries me is that there is nothing in this bill that ensures that I need to pass on savings that I have received. The worry and the concern that a lot of people have, and that I have, is that part of the reason why a lot of businesses have been so strongly in favour of this is that, of course, they want the input costs reduced, but does that does not necessarily translate into that being passed on? The real concern is that these are going to be absorbed and are going to be paid by consumers. That is the question I want to get your feedback on.