Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to return to the amendments before you, Chair. Senator Pocock has suggested some amendments to provide for a review mechanism of certain particular impacts. An amendment that dealt with similar issues from Dr Haines went through the House, and it was very general. I note Senator Pocock has been a little bit more specific with his proposal. The Haines amendment was quite general. So I wanted to ask the government: to what extent would the Haines amendment, if you like, and the reviews now contained in this bill before us allow and provide for a benchmark of electricity prices over the next decade against what was promised in the Labor Party's Powering Australia plan?

The bill before this place is one element of the Powering Australia plan that the Labor Party took to the election, and in that plan they made very specific promises about what Australians could expect from the implementation of their climate policies. In particular, I read from—I'm just finding the page number, but there are no page numbers! Sorry, it is page 4; it's just landscape. Thanks for clarifying that. On page 4 of the Powering Australia plan it says, 'It'—with 'it' being their Powering Australia policy—'will bring down household power bills by $275 in 2025'—just three Christmases away—'and $378 in 2030.' We've heard about the $275, but we don't hear as much about the $378. The Prime Minister mentioned the $275 20-odd times during the campaign.