Labor has been called out for their complete hypocrisy on power prices.
Momentum Energy was set up under Labor specifically to operate in the Victorian energy market, it does not operate on mainland Tasmania. Under Labor, Momentum offered similar offers to mainland customers.
Under Labor, power prices increased by 65 per cent. Under the Hodgman Government, power prices for regulated customers, which covers 99 per cent of all customers in Tasmania, are actually cheaper than when we were elected.
The Tasmanian Energy Regulator’s comparison of standing offer energy prices from August this year shows that typical business electricity customers in Tasmania currently have the lowest annual bills in Australia.
We recognise that the ongoing volatility in the national electricity market has caused a significant increase in the national wholesale price of power and that is affecting some larger customers, such as farmers.
The Government has acted to help reduce power prices for businesses. We have worked with Hydro Tasmania to reduce the wholesale contract price of power by around 20 per cent. In addition, in this year’s budget we included $20 million to be available for energy rebates for eligible business customers to further reduce the price impact. Eligible customers can apply for a rebate of up to $15 per megawatt hour, which means a further discount of up to 15 per cent against the wholesale contract price. We have also capped regulated power prices this year, saving households around $300 on a typical bill.
In addition the Government has worked with our network business to reduce network costs by around 20 per cent.
The fact is Labor has no policy on power prices and the only thing we can be certain of is that power prices will increase under a minority Labor-Green Government.