Thursday, 8 February 2024

Energy policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:57): (699) Tonight I want to draw attention to the Minister for Energy and Resources. She has made some extraordinary comments in the last 24 hours, comments that are clearly out of touch and comments that I think most Australians, most Victorians in particular, will find very odd. She said that energy prices are falling, and she did some extraordinary actions – down, down. I think we know where those words come from. They might have been in a commercial and there might have even been, I might say, a song along those lines once upon a time. Unfortunately for the minister it is not true: retail energy prices have been surging upwards. It is important in a cost-of-living crisis to be honest, to be accurate and not to be deceptive.

It is important to note that the recent report by St Vincent de Paul and Alviss Consulting said that in the last 12 months electricity prices have surged 28 per cent in Victoria for households, gas is up 22 per cent and green schemes in Victoria are the most expensive in Australia at $188 per household. These are huge hits on average families. A 28 per cent rise, let us be clear, is not a down, down, it is an up, up, up, up, up, and Victorian families are feeling it. They can really feel it, and they can feel it where it hurts. The same is true with small business. In the case of small business, the retail tracker figures are quite extraordinary. This is an analysis by a reputable authority showing that Victoria had the biggest increases for small businesses at 17 per cent up and 31 per cent up for gas – bigger than any other place in Australia in these increases. Again, it is not down, down but up, up, up. It is very worrying for most Victorians.

I think what is required here is for the minister to correct the record and to apologise to Victorians. She needs to come out and make a statement and say that she got it terribly, terribly wrong. Victorians are feeling it. It is a cost-of-living crisis, and a big part of that is the energy outcomes that are impacting them very, very severely – young families, older Victorians. Did you know that the minister for energy has stripped away benefits from pensioners? Longstanding benefit schemes that have helped pensioners for decades have been stripped away by this energy minister. Their prices have gone up, up, up, not down, down, down. I think the minister owes an apology to every pensioner who has been clobbered by these schemes. The action I seek from the minister tonight is for her to correct the record, to come out make a public statement and say she was wrong and she is terribly, terribly sorry because it has gone up, up, up, not down, down, down.