Senator CHANDLER (Tasmania) (15:19): To paraphrase a great film from the early noughties, why are you so obsessed with us? All we have heard today from those in the government is their own views on what happened when we were in government. There weren't many constructive ideas at all coming from members of the government today. I think that's really disappointing. We are seven months into this government now, into this new parliament, and the broken promises are starting to stack up. The problems are out there. Australians are under the pump. We have a government that promised one thing in May, and, at best, they do something entirely different, and, at worst, they don't even address the problem to start with. During the election campaign, and while the now government was in opposition, Labor promised on multiple occasions that they would fix the rising cost of living. They said they had a plan. They promised that they would reduce inflation. They promised that they would help Australians get household budgets under control. They promised that the average Australian could expect to see a $275 reduction in their power bills. And they promised that they would be a transparent and accountable government. It all sounded so easy, and they promised an easy fix. But it turns out that governing the country isn't as easy as some of those opposite expected. Maybe that's why they come into this place and, instead of talking about what they should be doing, they just talk about their perceived issues with the previous government. Right now, under Anthony Albanese and Labor, we have an economy with high inflation, rapidly rising interest rates and skyrocketing costs of living. But their dismal economic management and failure to deliver what they promised doesn't stop there. Like I said, Labor have also abandoned their promise to reduce household electricity prices for Australians, a promise which they said would save the average Australian $275 on their power bill. Senator Scarr: How many times did they say it? Senator Birmingham: Ninety-seven. Senator CHANDLER: Thank you, Senator Birmingham and Senator Scarr, for the interjections there. This late in a sitting week I didn't have the number quite front of mind. But the number I did have front of mind is 275, because that's how many dollars they said your electricity bill was going to go down by. Instead of making savings for households, the government has been forced to make an embarrassing admission that, over the next two years, Australians can expect to see electricity prices go up by 56 per cent. People voted for Mr Albanese and Labor based off this promise. The question is: what is Labor going to do about it? The fact is: they do not have a plan. That is why we saw this behaviour from the government today. They will talk as much as they like about the last nine years and their various views on our government, but, six months in, they can't focus on the issues that are important to Australians. Not even Labor state governments believe that the Albanese government has a plan that's going to work, let alone a plan that's going to deliver that $275 promise. I was looking through the Financial Review yesterday and I read that the South Australian government was appealing to the federal energy minister not to do anything stupid. Well, it's a bit late for that. Most people would say that promising every Australian household that their power bills would go down by hundreds of dollars, to win an election, and then announcing in your first budget that bills will actually be going up by hundreds of dollars is a fairly stupid thing to do. The Albanese government's plan to put a cap on gas prices faces a new roadblock, with the South Australian government joining industry warnings that it could deter investment in new gas supply developments. That was the report in the Fin yesterday. This came on the same day that the Queensland Labor government told the Albanese government to keep its hands off their generators. Not even Labor governments trust other Labor governments to bring down power prices. The dishonesty that was on display by the Labor Party earlier this year when they promised Australians they would lower the cost of living is extraordinary. When they promised Australians they'd get a $275 cut to their power bills, millions of people believed them. They believed them when they said that they were going to be a government that was about transparency and accountability, and yet this week, in this place, they tried to take days out of our Senate estimates sitting schedule for next year. You can't be much less interested in transparency and accountability than that—taking away the ability of this chamber to scrutinise the decisions of government. Instead of a $275 cut, Labor brought out a budget promising Australian households a 56 per cent hike to their power bills, and now we are seeing Labor state governments fighting with the federal government about these very same issues. It's not good enough. Six months in, it's a pretty disappointing result for the government.