PM’s power rangers out

THE Turnbull Cabinet led a power blitz across the state yesterday as senior ministers pushed its energy price message from Mount Isa to Logan.

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull plugged power price policies, his deputy Barnaby Joyce warned of a summer of chaos and blackouts unless the electricity generation problems were addressed.

They were joined in the state by Treasurer Scott Morrison in Mount Isa, Transport Minister Darren Chester in Toowoomba, Arts Minister Mitch Fifield in Brisbane and Human Services Minister Alan Tudge in Bundaberg.

It follows a two-day visit to north Queensland by Opposition

Leader Bill Shorten this week.

The Queensland invasion comes as speculation continues to mount that a state election campaign is imminent.

Mr Turnbull, standing alongside Queensland Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls, accused Queensland’s stateowned power generators CS Energy and Stanwell of “gaming the system” to increase profits.

“They have been able to use that market power to bid up electricity prices and basically line their own pockets at the expense of consumers,” he said. “The largest single part of your bill is the network costs. That’s the poles and wires, basically.”

He said his government was addressing these issues by abolishing the Limited Merits Review, which allows distributers to use the courts to appeal the regulator’s rulings on what they could charge. Mr Shorten said Mr Turnbull was all talk but no action on power prices.