Queensland election: Electricity prices perfect poll trigger.
Author: Courier Mail Date Posted:31 October 2017
IF ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk does pull the trigger on an early election tomorrow – and many believe she will – a significant motivator will be electricity prices.
Labor has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at the burning issue in recent months, and laid down a challenge to the LNP to come up with alternative policies that will cut power costs.
The popular view has been that public ownership of power assets is in the interests of households.
Yet having government pull the levers of generation and network companies has not prevented Queensland’s electricity costs from spiking like every other state.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s report into power prices demonstrates this.
Average power bills in Queensland were $1748 in 2015-16, higher than the largely privatised states of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.
ACCC figures show the main driver of the increase over the decade was state-owned “poles and wires” businesses, with network costs jumping from $599 to $874 annually.
The Labor Government’s suite of measures are a long way from the structural fix that’s needed to put downward pressure on prices.
They are, as Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has frequently pointed out, a “money merry-go-round”, with the Government taking cash in one hand and giving some of it back with another.
However, what Labor has demonstrated are ways of making public ownership work in the interests of Queenslanders.
And this, obviously, wouldn’t have been possible had the assets been sold, as the LNP ill-fatedly advocated at the last election.
The Government directed Energex and Ergon Energy not to appeal against the Australian Energy Regulator’s price determination earlier this term, stopping some of the potential increase.
State-owned generator Stanwell was ordered to alter its bidding behaviour, which was driving up wholesale energy costs.
This has had an immediate impact, which should flow through to consumers in the future.
Households will also get a $50 “asset ownership dividend” each year for the next two years.
In effect, this means the Government is just adding to the significant subsidy costs that already occurred in Queensland rather than addressing the issues driving prices up.
However, they’re using money that would not be available in the Budget if the asset was in private hands.
This is a significant advantage in the political argy-bargy to come on power prices during the election.
Pressure will now be on the LNP to come up with alternatives beyond their promises of a north Queensland coal-fired power station, stopping Labor’s renewable energy target, and tying the bonuses of power bosses to lower prices.
Whether voters believe any politician promising to reduce their electricity bill at this election is another matter entirely.
