Green dodges the question

Bryan Green’s notorious evasion skills are once again on display in his capacity as Energy Minister.

Mr Green seems incapable of giving a straight answer, instead relying on weasel words or ignoring the question altogether.

Bryan Green needs to be honest with Tasmanians, for once, and answer the following questions:

• Is Aurora in financial trouble?
• Has it asked the Government for a bail-out?
• Will power prices rise as a result of Aurora’s financial difficulties?
• Is the Government still committed to its price cap on power prices and how much will this really cost Tasmanian taxpayers?

It is simply not good enough that Bryan Green refuses to tell Tasmanians. The answers to these questions will reveal to Tasmanians whether or not they should expect massive price rises in their power bills. Surely, Tasmanians have the right to know.

Kim Booth

STATEWIDE ENERGY PLAN NEEDED AS CONCERNS GROW OVER POWER PRICE RISES
Kim Booth MP
Greens Energy spokesperson

The Tasmanian Greens today said that the stoush between Hydro Tasmania and Aurora Energy raised serious concerns that Tasmanians were about to be hit with another power price rise, and pointed to a recent announcement by the Office of The Tasmanian Economic Regulator (OTTER) that it has approved electricity distribution price rises of between 5.9 and 15.8 percent, applicable from the 1st of July this year.

Greens Energy spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that many Tasmanians are already doing it tough trying to pay their electricity and heating costs, and have called for a comprehensive State Energy Strategy to be developed as a matter of urgency.

Mr Booth also pointed to a statement made by Minister Lin Thorp five weeks before the election that, “[t]he Tasmanian Electricity Regulator has been advised that regulations will be prepared that will cap price increases to five per cent for 2010-11,” and the Minister must now reveal whether these regulations have been prepared or communicated to OTTER prior to this latest distribution price rise determination.

“The Greens have been consistently on the record advocating that a comprehensive State Energy Strategy be developed, and this latest blame-game between Hydro Tasmania and Aurora Energy only goes to show why such a Strategy is desperately needed, and how negligent Labor has been in its failure to have such a Strategy in place after twelve years in office,” Mr Booth said.

“Tasmanian power consumers must not be caught between feuding energy entities.”

“A State Energy Strategy would provide a long-term plan for energy generation, distribution, and would provide certainty for both business as well as mum and dad power consumers. Instead, Tasmanians are lurching from price rise to price rise.”

“The Labor Party made it abundantly clear before the State election that it would cap electricity price rises at five percent in 2010/11 for all Tasmanian households and small businesses, and they must now explain why the Economic Regulator has taken no account of their commitment just three months after they made it,” said Mr Booth.

“What has happened to the regulations promised by Labor to cap price rises? Have they forgotten their own promise – “Labor will limit increases in electricity prices for 2010-11 to five per cent if re-elected” – or are they reneging now that the election has passed?”

“The Tasmanian Greens will not allow Labor to dupe Tasmanians on this one – the cost-of-living is spiralling in this state and it is the responsibility of all Tasmanian political parties to look after those doing it tough by prioritising every effort to bring the cost of living down. The immediate development of a statewide Energy Strategy is needed urgently to achieve this,” said Mr Booth.