Mr BUTLER (Port Adelaide) (16:10): That was quite a magical mystery tour from the member for Swan, who is a very popular member across both sides of the aisle. I think someone must have written that for him and held his arm behind his back and forced him to read it, except for the last bit which was a nice bit of history. As my colleagues have pointed out, and as those opposite appear intent on denying, 1 July is firming as a nightmare for ordinary Australians. There is a series of measures, driven by this Prime Minister and this government, that are going to hurt ordinary Australians. As my colleague the shadow minister for employment pointed out, it is going to be a day of joy for the big end of town. Those earning $1 million are going to receive a tax cut of $16,400 on 1 July, but ordinary Australians are going to take hit after hit, blow after blow, as a direct result of decisions by this government. The shadow minister referred particularly to the penalty rates decision by the industrial commission—an unprecedented decision to cut the take-home pay of hundreds of thousands of Australian workers with no offset. There has been legislation in this parliament that we pleaded with the government to support to prevent 700,000 workers from receiving a pay cut. We gave them opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing by some of the lowest paid workers in Australia, and they have just shunned us; importantly, not only shunning us but shunning those 700,000 workers. Households across Australia, many of which will be dealing with the impact of penalty rate cuts for those who work on Sundays in retail, hospitality and pharmacy are also receiving notice from their power companies—AGL, Origin Energy and Energy Australia—that they will receive price hikes of up to 20 per cent. Mr Craig Kelly interjecting— Mr BUTLER: The member for Hughes is from New South Wales, and I am sure we will hear something about renewable energy from him. New South Wales—a state governed for six years by a Liberal government—under four years of this federal government is facing a power price increase of 16 per cent from AGL, 16.1 per cent from Energy Australia and 19 per cent from Origin Energy. Mr Craig Kelly interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Hughes will get his turn in a minute. Mr BUTLER: We know exactly why because report after report has told us why, including the recent report from the Chief Scientist. The key driver is the policy paralysis in this building under this Prime Minister and his predecessor, the member for Warringah. Wholesale prices under this government have doubled. We saw the numbers in The Australian, the newspaper favoured by members opposite, in an article by David Crowe, who showed that even under the carbon tax—the dreaded carbon tax—wholesale prices were around $58 a megawatt hour and now they are $130. Of course under the carbon price mechanism there was the household assistance package—pensioners received increases and we tripled the tax-free threshold—which more than covered the impact in energy prices and other prices of the carbon price mechanism. In my state of South Australia, the impact of the carbon price mechanism was about 4.5 per cent. In New South Wales, they are dealing with 20 per cent power price increases, at the same time that wages are as flat as they have ever been. People are actually receiving real wage cuts under this government. And just to put the cherry on the top of the outrage, at the same time, this government is going to cut the pension by $365 a year for new pensioners—hundreds of thousands of pensioners into the future will have their pension cut by $365—at a time when we are seeing record power price increases. As my friend the member for Grayndler has said time and time again, this government had a plan to get into government but no plan to govern. For four years we have had no energy policy in this country. The Finkel report has given us an opportunity to work across the aisle to put downward pressure on the power price increases that the member for Hughes is going to have to explain to his constituents in New South Wales over the coming weeks. But we still do not quite know whether this Prime Minister and the Minister for the Environment and Energy will be given permission by the member for Hughes and others in the coalition party room to do the right thing by the nation and actually start to put downward pressure on power prices in this country.