When Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton wanted to throw red meat to an electorate hit by rising living costs, he headed to one Sydney’s largest meat markets.
Electricity costs have rocketed since the last election, he said, with businesses such as the Pendle Hill Meat Market spending thousands of dollars more a month on cold storage than they were in 2022. Those higher costs have been passed on to the consumer, he said.
Rising power expenses have become symbolic of a wider political debate ahead of a vote likely to be held in mid-May, with Dutton tying the ruling Labor party’s flagship investments in renewable energy to the cost of living crisis.