Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Minister for Rural Health, Minister for Sport, Minister for Regional Communications and Deputy Leader of The Nationals) (14:11): Senator Farrell, I don't back away from running policy ideas and positions through the National Party party room. We've been incredibly strong for two years on advocating for an affordable, reliable response to the crisis that is facing households and our local industries, with a 300 per cent increase in power prices in my home state of Victoria, on the back of— The PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, please resume your seat. Senator Cameron, on a point of order. Senator Cameron: Direct relevance, Mr President. The question is when and how did the minister first become aware of the further changes the Prime Minister made to his energy policy on Friday—that's it. The PRESIDENT: As senators know, I cannot instruct the minister how to answer a question. The minister needs to be directly relevant to part of the question asked. Senator Cameron, you have reminded her of the final part of the question; she has a minute and 29 seconds remaining to answer. Senator McKenzie. Senator McKENZIE: As I said, we've been advocating for lower power prices for households and for our industries for years. And, as such, our government has instructed the ACCC to do a report into the affordability crisis, which they delivered in June— The PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, on a point of order. Senator Wong: The point of order is on direct relevance. The minister made a public statement about internal processes. This question goes directly to that public statement—when and how did she become aware—and I'd ask you to remind her of the question and ask her to be directly relevant to it. The PRESIDENT: Ministers can be asked questions about their public statements. I remind the minister of the question at the end of that quotation from her public statement. Senator McKENZIE: I've made a lot of public statements around the importance of energy affordability and I don't back away from any of them. The comment I made around taking any changes to our government's policy around energy to the National Party party room I think was a sound statement then, and I stand by it. And, following a cabinet meeting last night, where the full package around the government's perspective on this issue was outlined— The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, on a point of order. Senator Jacinta Collins: Mr President, the question refers to one public statement, where the minister said, 'I haven't seen the detail of'. So we're asking: when did she see 'the detail of'—and she continues to avoid answering the question. The PRESIDENT: I cannot instruct the minister how to answer a question. Senator Collins, in the section immediately preceding your point of order, in my view, Senator McKenzie was directly addressing part of the question. Senator McKENZIE: I will step you through: we have the cabinet meeting, the details are presented, I'm happy with those, we go to a National Party party room meeting. The National Party is very proud to be part of a government that's taking direct action to lower power prices in this country by backing and supporting the construction and refurbishment of energy assets in coal, hydro and, indeed, gas; by making sure we adopt the default pricing mechanisms outlined in the ACCC report—a 25 per cent reduction in power prices as a result of that; and by adopting divestiture mechanisms so that we can actually— (Time expired)