Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I sent a survey out to the electorate of Aston and asked them, amongst other things: 'What would be the one issue you would raise in federal parliament? If you had one issue, what would it be?' Courtney told me:

Cost of living has risen by so much since Labor came to power and it will only be worse now that they are back in. They promised cheaper prices and have failed miserably.

Richard said that he wanted to talk about cheaper energy, as this 'supports industry to grow, providing more jobs'. And Odille wanted to raise what so many Australians are feeling, and I will quote her. She said, 'the lies the Albanese government told us about giving us $275 towards our electricity bills'.

These voices are not alone. They're the voices of households right across Australia who are struggling with higher prices, higher power bills and a government that has made such big promises but has delivered so little. While families are tightening their belts, what is this Labor government doing? Last week, we learnt that Australia had spent $7 million for the privilege of losing a bid for COP31. They lost out to Turkiye at the end of the day. 'That's fine; don't worry about it; it's okay,' say Labor, because there's a consolation prize, and what a consolation prize it is. The Member for McMahon, Mr Chris Bowen, Labor's energy minister, now gets to swan around Turkiye as the lead negotiator for the international climate conference, a full-time job paid for by you, the taxpayer. Meanwhile, energy bills under this government have increased 40 per cent. This is the same guy that promised Australians $275 off your energy bills. Now he's taking on another job paid for by you. Only Labor would give us a part-time minister during a full-blown energy— (Time expired)