Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the state of the Liberal and National parties, once serious political movements in this country that are now hopelessly dysfunctional. The coalition are in crisis. There's chaos, there's dysfunction, there's internal warfare, and now there's the 'no-alition'.

Australians deserve a credible opposition—one that's capable of serious policy debate and willing to put the nation's interests ahead of their own internal feuds. What we have instead are two parties locked in an endless cycle of dysfunction, division and denial. It goes on and on. This week we had 30 of them trying to get up to the media because they all wanted to put their own story and spin on what's happening internally.

The modern Liberal Party, once the party of Menzies, has become unrecognisable, lurching from the centre right to the far right and back again depending on who has the knife that particular week. And the Nationals, once a very proud party and who claim to stand for rural and regional Australia, have become little more than a grouping for culture wars and conspiracy theories. Together they can't agree on climate change. They can't agree on a climate policy. They can't agree on an energy policy. They couldn't agree on a housing policy when they were in government for almost 10 years. They did absolutely nothing. They don't have the political will to actually develop and do the work that's necessary to develop good policy.

What do they do? They go from one crisis to another. Scott Morrison was the saviour of the Liberal universe when he was in parliament as the Prime Minister, but now they don't know whether to condemn him or to support him. Then you've got the Nationals circus of Mr Joyce and then Mr McCormack and then Mr Joyce again. Now we've got Mr Littleproud. He will do whatever he has to do to make himself relevant. The question is: Are we going to see another split? Will there be a split? Will there be a divorce? No-one really knows. Then we've got Mr Joyce. Is he staying with the Nationals? Is he staying with the coalition? Is he going after Pauline Hanson's role? Who knows.

This demonstrates to the Australian people how dysfunctional those people on the other side and in the other place really are. When they were in government for almost ten years, they denied climate change. All they ever did was drive down wages. They didn't build any houses and didn't have a housing policy, yet they come in and lecture us. Let's not forget that during all those years they had 22 energy policies.

How many of those did they deliver? None—not one. Then they had the great saviour: the 23rd policy. 'We will do something that will cost the Australian taxpayer billions of billions of dollars to go nuclear.' And what did they do? They couldn't even tell anyone how much it was going to cost. They couldn't tell the Australian people where they were locate these. This was just another fantasy. It was just a thought bubble without any costings—except they couldn't cost it. They couldn't tell people where they were going to put them and there was no timeline at all. They didn't have a plan. That was a distraction from the fact they had no credibility, they had nothing to say on energy policy for over a decade and their record on the economy—they like to pretend they actually own the right to be the strongest government to manage the economy when they're in power.

Well, let's not forget that, under the coalition, debt skyrocketed, wages flatlined and productivity slumped. The Liberals and Nationals spent a decade promising budget repair and instead delivered the biggest structural deficit since the global financial crisis. That's their legacy. They cut TAFE and training. They neglected manufacturing, closed down the car industry and let so many other manufacturing jobs drive overseas. They were a terrible government who didn't do anything for Australian workers. We know that, when it comes to Medicare and health, they're the wreckers, not the builders.

And still we have opened all these urgent care clinics, which are a resounding success. On Sunday I was at a fantastic medical centre that already bulk-bills. That's going to be expanded from the eight or nine doctors who work seven days a week delivering for northern Tasmania. These people have done nothing to restore the Australian people's confidence in them, because they have no policy, they have no unity and they have no future in government.

Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today Senator Pocock moved a matter of public importance acknowledging that the Australian government should 'legislate to redirect uncontracted export gas into the domestic market and bring down the price of gas and electricity for Australian industry and households, to recognise that Australian gas is for Australian households and businesses.' I wholeheartedly agree with Senator Pocock that Australians need access to more gas. The purpose of every senator in this place is to improve the lives of the Australian people first, and Australians are doing it tough right now.

Because of the policies of this government, Australians have paid 40 per cent more for their electricity since 2022. That is 40 per cent more in three years under Labor. This significant price rise is not felt only on quarterly energy bills. Sadly, the flow-on of higher energy prices is felt economy-wide. Food prices are up 15 per cent thanks in no small way to the increased electricity costs of refrigeration and processing. Housing is up 19 per cent partly because the local manufacturing of building materials in NSW like steel, aluminium and wood products can't get reliable and cheap power for machining and refining. Transport costs are through the roof. Farming is becoming untenable, and mining is under threat. And it all comes back to this government abandoning the field on energy prices.

But no longer are Australians allowed to know what the modelling shows will happen to electricity prices. Energy price modelling that's paid for using tax dollars is being withheld from the Australian public, and we all know why that is: prices are only going up, and those on the other side don't want to admit it. However, increasing gas supply drives down prices. Australian gas is already going to be burned for power, and yet the government would rather it be burned in Japan than here at home to support Australians. Japan has cheaper power than Australia, but, to appease unachievable and uneconomic emissions targets, the Labor government would rather it be burnt overseas so it counts against Japan's emissions, not our own. I find it hard to agree with the Greens political party sometimes, but on this we can agree: It is one of the earth. Emissions in Japan are the same as emissions in Australia, but power prices are not.

Releasing this unallocated gas to the Australian market can help restore Australia's natural advantage in manufacturing, quality of life and stability in our energy grid. It will help relieve the stress for small-business owners, households and families. Releasing this gas lets the world know that Australia can do business, that we can make things competitively and make them with the best workers, who understand that investment needs certainty in supply.

The only thing certain under this Labor government is higher energy bills, and Australians are paying the price. How these ministers opposite can face the people of Tomago, the farmers of regional New South Wales and the manufacturers of Western Sydney I could never guess. Release the gas, reduce energy prices and put Australians first.