Media Release

Will Hodgman MP
Leader of the State Opposition
Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Treasurer
Shadow Minister for Energy

Wednesday 16th June 2010

Government's Dim Announcement on Energy

Today in Parliament we saw a flaccid response to one of the most serious challenges facing the State.

The typically shallow effort from Mr Bartlett just raises further questions.

Over a year after the Government first became aware of major problems with its energy policy and within the energy sector itself, why have they only decided to do something now?

The Government have been saying for days that they would today explain why they chose to ditch their election commitment to cap electricity prices. The Premier did no such thing.

Exactly what changed since the election that had Labor abandon another one of its key election policies?

It is also concerning that the Premier failed to say that the Labor-Green Government's is committed to keeping the retail arm of Aurora in public ownership. The Premier made a point of saying that power generation and distribution assets would remain in public ownership, but was completely silent on retail. Does this mean that there is a secret plan to break up and sell Aurora?

The proposal to strip the independent Economic Regulator of some of its responsibilities will need to be examined thoroughly. It is astounding that the Treasurer will now be responsible for setting wholesale energy prices in Tasmania. This will bring political self-interest into setting power prices and either prices will rise or the taxpayer-owned energy businesses will have to slow down their infrastructure investment.

Perhaps the most disturbing admission in today's Statement is that while the taxpayer-owned energy companies are going through tough times, there will be no solutions until the middle of next year at the earliest.

We have been arguing for a review of the energy sector for months; why has it taken until now for the Government to act?

Ultimately, today's Statement is a damning admission that the Government's decade old energy strategy has failed.