Slashing power bill real test

THE LNP is right to attack Labor over the executive pay packets doled out to energy company bosses, but it has not gone far enough.

North Queenslanders will rightly be annoyed to hear that some executives in these power companies earn salaries of up to $ 900,000 and take home bonuses of $ 100,000, especially at a time when household power bills are rising to crippling levels.

But denying those bonuses until power prices are cut would not go far enough to satisfy most North Queenslanders.

We need power prices to plummet, no matter how unrealistic that may be.

The Opposition would be well advised to think its policy through more carefully and come up with what North Queenslanders really want – a major reduction in the massive profits energy companies transfer from our pockets into the State Government’s.

Both sides of politics bicker daily about who is responsible for the mess Queensland finds itself in but the North doesn’t care about who is to blame.

Voters here are ready to back the party with a clear plan to power bills, not exert “downward pressure”, so the group that presents a credible plan to achieve that will perform well in the region.

The North wants outcomes- driven policy, not feel- good ideology. Residents want objective, informed discussion about the best possible way to bring household overheads back under control.

Labor is hurtling headlong down the path to a renewable energy future, and that may well be the best option.

But Labor’s reliance on minority party support, namely The Greens, to remain in power makes voters wonder whether energy policies are being drafted with political survival, rather than the survival of North Queenslanders, in mind.

North Queenslanders accept that solving the energy crisis is difficult, but voters will pay little attention – and react negatively – to policies or statements they perceive to have been made for political gain rather than driving down their bills.