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

The opposition has risen to take note of answers to all the questions they asked of all our ministers today. And it's little wonder, given how they've struggled to find any political or tangible ground on which to mount a political case on any issue today, whether it's the recognition of West Jerusalem, whether it's the Rockhampton ring road, whether it's Medibank and cybersecurity or whether it's power prices. I'm going to start today with power prices, because it is probably the issue of most significant importance to most Australians.

The government has been working to grapple with rising energy costs, unlike those opposite, from whom we saw some 22 energy policies in half a dozen years and as many ministers. Those opposite might like to push aside the fact that they didn't deal with any of these underlying issues when it came to household energy costs and simply say, 'Well, what are you going to do about it?' The simple fact is that we have outlined a very clear platform and a very clear set of energy policies which will create certainty for energy producers, will create certainty for energy producers who are producing renewable energy, will create certainty for industry and, most importantly, will stabilise the system for households. In stabilising the system for households, we are able to look to starting to manage rising energy costs.

Many Australians have actually seen their energy costs go down if they've been fortunate enough to have been able to directly invest in renewable energy, such as rooftop solar, in their own households. It's this kind of individual household vision that we know we need to embrace as a whole nation. It is, of course, not without its complexity, which is why we need a suite of policies, such as Rewiring the Nation, our electric vehicle policies and a whole range of policies on which we will get more detail in tonight's budget. These policies are playing a key role and will continue to play a key role into the future in managing household energy costs.

There is, of course, a massive tension right across Australian households which are struggling with the rising cost of living. I know we will be very mindful of this in this budget, but, when the opposition seeks to ask questions about power prices and the Australian Energy Regulator, it's very apparent that they have little regard for their own record and the lack of attention that they have given this incredibly important issue.

We are part of a government on this side that will deal responsibly with the mess we have before us in energy markets. Our response is not to try and hide price increases, as those opposite did. What we saw from those opposite on their watch was, in fact, Mr Taylor hiding those costs from the electorate right before the election. He didn't dare show Australians the data about their very real household energy costs rising. Is it little wonder that those opposite would now like to take the legacy of those price increases which happened on their watch and which households still feel the pain of today and try and cast the blame and legacy for that on our shoulders? We are here for transparency and to address those underlying issues in our energy markets and energy production.