Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of all answers to questions without notice asked by coalition senators today.

Something that I've been reflecting on recently is something that a lot of people tell me when I talk to them: that they would like their representatives in this place and in the House to actually answer their questions plainly—to answer them directly, without going around in circles. Today's answers to coalition questions, particularly in relation to energy prices and the BOM failure, reminded me of that. Whether people want to accept it or not, this government went to the last election with a promise of reducing electricity prices. There is no planet upon which anybody can stand and suggest that that has occurred. That was a failure of this government to deliver on an election promise of reducing energy prices. Most people have not seen a reduction in any energy prices at all. I would hasten to say that probably no-one has seen a reduction in energy prices, and not even of the $275 that the government promised. Instead, Australians are paying many, many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more. The fact that people are afraid during winter or worried in summer when it's hot to turn on their cooling or their heating, whichever is appropriate, is not okay. People shouldn't be worried about doing that in a country like Australia.

There is an urgent need for this government to address their failed energy policies, which are seeing prices continue to increase, which are seeing the cost-of-living burden for Australians continue to rise and which are making it harder for everyday Australians to pay their bills and do the things they need to do. Particularly, as we approach Christmas, the statistics that we see are really disturbing. Families are saying, 'We actually can't afford to do the things we used to do.' They can't afford to do that, because of the increased cost of their groceries, the increased cost of their insurances, the increased cost of their energy, the increased cost of their mortgages and the increased cost of their rent. We can't hide from the fact that this government has presided over the greatest fall in living standards in the OECD. That is a reality. The rising cost of energy is a core reason for that. This government has presided over excessive spending. Part of the reason that we have a problem with persistent inflation—and 'persistent inflation' is a term used by the Reserve Bank, not one that the opposition has created; it is one that has come from the Reserve Bank—is the excessive spending of this government. It's not to do with something that has happened overseas, and it's not inherited from the opposition, from when the opposition were in government; it's a direct result of the actions and inactions of this government. What has happened with the BOM website is a further example of that.

The questions to Senator Watt were really important because they go to the core of the problems that we have in our country today. Australians can't afford to pay their bills under a government that is presiding over an almost $100 million expenditure on a Bureau of Meteorology website that was estimated to have cost $4 million. I have seen in my life some things go over budget. I've worked in many different organisations both professionally and as a volunteer. I have seen things go over budget. I have never seen things go over budget from $4 million to almost $100 million. I've got the amount here. I think it's more than a 2,000 per cent increase. That is extraordinary. I don't know how anybody can justify that. I also don't know how it was allowed to ever happen in the first place. That is a question that this government must answer, not just in the isolation of this egregious case of wasting taxpayers' money but in what they have been doing since they were first elected to government, including the impacts that it's having on Australian taxpayers and the impacts that it's having on the budget of our country and our ability to deliver the infrastructure and everyday needs that we have across health and education and the breadth of our budget. This is a complete and utter failure of the management of the economy by this government.