Media Release

Peter Gutwein MP
Shadow Treasurer
Shadow Minister for Energy

Thursday 24th June 2010

Government Knew Aurora was in Trouble Before the Election

In Parliament today, the Treasurer finally admitted that he was briefed by Aurora on its financial position in January 2010, weeks before the election was announced.

We know that Aurora understood the financial challenges they faced, as they had provided information to PricewaterhouseCoopers that explained their situation very clearly at around the same time that Aurora briefed the Treasurer.

The Treasurer confirmed today that Aurora's directors had met their responsibilities to provide prompt advice to the Treasurer on its finances. Therefore, the Treasurer must have known the seriousness of Aurora's situation.

It is simply not plausible that Aurora would provide one set of information to PricewaterhouseCoopers and another to the Treasurer.

What is plausible is that the Government knew of Aurora's problems well before the election and Michael Aird chose to ignore that advice and has been intent on misleading both the people of Tasmania and Parliament.

It's clear now that the promise to cap electricity price rises to five per cent was nothing more than a cruel hoax that they knew they could never deliver.