David Koch has accused Anthony Albanese of breaking two election promises during a fiery flurry in the air after Tuesday’s budget.
The host of Sunrise said the Prime Minister promised Australians they would get real wage increases and cut their energy bills by $275, while Tuesday’s budget predicted energy prices would rise by 56 percent next year.
“Now, those two in this budget are a failure,” Koch said.
“What do you say to the voters… you broke two promises?”
Anthony Albanese is grilled over his government’s latest budget, with David Koch accusing him of breaking two election promises
The prime minister made an effort to defend the budget, saying he had raised the minimum wage by 5.2 percent and inflation by 5.1 percent at the time.
On Wednesday, Australian inflation reached 7.3 percent, the highest consumer price growth in 32 years.
“That’s a real pay raise for minimum wage workers there,” he said.
But Koch was unimpressed by the Prime Minister’s response and questioned Mr Albanese further about his pledge to cut energy bills.
“You said you’d save $275 a year on utility bills and now they’re going up 56 percent over the next 18 months,” he said.
“The war in Ukraine has been going on for a while, we knew this was happening.”
Mr Albanian defended his budget as he was grilled by Sunrise hosts on Wednesday
Mr Albanese admitted that the conflict in Ukraine had damaged resources, saying that “decades of energy policy failures” were also to blame.
“We saw four gigawatts go out of the system and only one back in. If you have less supply, it affects the price,” said the prime minister.
“But you shouldn’t have made that promise, because you knew you couldn’t keep it,” Koch interrupted.
When Mr Albanian tried to deny the claim, co-host Natalie Barr interrupted and said Australians had voted for the prime minister based on the changes he would make.
Mr Albanese said his government had delivered on promises including making childcare cheaper and improving the National Broadband Network (NBN).
“When it comes to power prices, there’s real pressure,” he admitted.
“We understand that people are having a hard time, we understand that the electricity price issue is a difficult one, so we have indicated that we are prepared for further regulatory reform.”
He added that the government was assessing the effectiveness of renewable forms of energy.
‘We need the cleanest, cheapest form of energy. That takes time to progress to the prizes,” said Mr Albanese.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers previously said soaring prices were a big part of the inflationary pressures the nation faces, admitting he didn’t know when people could expect costs to come down.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers admitted on Wednesday that rising prices are putting pressure on Australians, admitting he didn’t know when people could expect costs to come down.
“There’s no point in pretending otherwise … we’re going to have these challenges ahead of us a little longer than we’d like, which is why the cost of living is so important,” he told ABC TV.
But dr. Chalmers said climate and environmental financing would indirectly lower power prices.
The budget included $30 billion in new green measures, including $20 billion to build new electricity transmission links to deal with renewable energy.
“Renewable energy is not only cleaner energy, it is also cheaper energy,” claimed Dr. Chalmers.
“There is more work to be done when it comes to the electricity market, we understand that these electricity prices are making it more difficult for Australians who are already under the pump.”
dr. Chalmers denied that the government broke an election promise to cut household electricity bills by $275 a year, and adding a $7.5 billion cost package would help ease consumer pain in the short term.
“Cheaper childcare, paid parental leave, cheaper medicines, more affordable housing and getting wages moving again are substantial costs of living,” he said.
“If you reduce the cost of living, you risk driving inflation and interest rates even further if you do it in an excessive or arbitrary way.”