The Tasmania First energy policy will be one of the centrepieces of the second majority Hodgman Liberal Government.
The Tasmania First policy is about two things – delivering reliable power at the lowest possible price and supporting Tasmanian jobs.
This week the Government has begun working on two key aspects of this package.
Firstly, the Government has begun the process of developing legislation to cap power prices until Tasmania breaks from mainland electricity contract pricing under the National Electricity Market. For too long, Tasmania’s power prices have been linked to power prices on the mainland. This is another mess left by Labor that we are cleaning up. Under the legislation we are developing, power prices will be capped until July 2021.
The Government is committed to break away from mainland electricity contract pricing by July 2021 and ensuring that Tasmanians pay Tasmanian prices for our energy. By de-linking from that price-setting mechanism under the National Electricity Market, the average Tasmanian household will save up to $200 per year.
Our commitment is for Tasmania to have the lowest regulated power prices in the nation, and breaking away from mainland electricity pricing will help us deliver that.
The legislation will be tabled in Parliament during the Autumn Sitting.
The second election commitment that the Government has commenced work on this week is relocating Momentum Energy jobs to Tasmania.
Momentum Energy’s call centre operations are currently based in Melbourne despite being owned by Hydro Tasmania since 2009.
Yesterday, I tasked Hydro Tasmania with identifying a Tasmanian site for Momentum’s relocated call centre.
Under our commitment, Hydro will identify a site for Momentum’s call centre operations in Tasmania within the next 12 months and I expect them to deliver on that.
I have asked Hydro to consider existing call centre infrastructure such as that in Cambridge, Kingston and Launceston.
We are committed to creating jobs and improving the lives of all Tasmanians, and this is great news that will help even more Tasmanians join the workforce.
It will also boost the local economy with more people in work and spending in local businesses.
The Hodgman Government is getting on with the job of delivering lower power prices and supporting Tasmanian jobs and I look forward to making more announcements about our Tasmania First energy policy in coming months.