EDITORIAL,
The point is few desperate North Queenslanders care about the reasons behind the increases in their power bills – they just want them to go down.
POWER prices look likely to be a decisive issue at the coming state election.
If you are a North Queensland business struggling under the weight of spiralling overheads such as electricity, today’s revelations about the truth behind power pricing in Queensland will shock you.
New analysis by Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg appears to show Queensland has had the highest- priced average wholesale power in Australia this year, about 30 per cent above average.
It is complex stuff and the Labor State Government has been quick to reject the claims made by the Coalition.
As the Bulletin revealed last week, the Government has been accused of “gaming” the complex pricing system used to trade electricity capacity to reap extraordinary profits from its fleet of modern power generators.
The 2016- 17 State Budget papers reveal the Government will reap $ 1.5 billion in dividends from government- owned generators in the next four years.
This is a 110 per cent increase on the estimates from 2015- 16.
Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey, who is vehement in his defence of the Government’s pricing controls and pressures, denies generators are to blame for spiralling bills across the state.
He insists the national energy market is “broken” – both sides of politics agree – but claims the Government’s order to generators to alter bidding strategies is proof of Labor “further backing consumers”.
The unarguable truth, no matter which side of the debate you sit on, is that power bills are crippling the North when the region’s economy can least afford speed bumps on the road to recovery.
Last week’s revelation that retailers are requiring tens of thousands of dollars as a security bond on some new businesses electricity connections has fired up our community, with plenty of readers contacting the paper to voice concern.
The point is few desperate North Queenslanders care about the reasons behind the increases in their power bills – they just want them to go down.
At the moment one side of politics is promising to cut bills while the other promises “downward pressure”, code for only a slowing of the increase.
This is not good enough.