Matthew Groom: Power Prices Fall From Today

From today, Tasmanian households and small and medium businesses will pay less on their power bills, with a 7.8 per cent drop in prices.

For a typical household this is a saving of around $164 per year and for a small business it’s a saving of $136.

This is much needed price relief for Tasmanians which Labor and the Greens do not support.

Instead, Bryan Green continues to support the carbon tax, which ripped around $100 million dollars out of Tasmanians’ pockets in the two years since it was introduced.

The Liberal Government has long said this was an unfair tax paid for by Tasmanians who use carbon-free energy generated by hydro dams and wind farms and we welcome today’s drop in power prices.

Bryan Green needs to be upfront with Tasmanians who are struggling to pay their bills and tell them why he thinks they don’t deserve this price relief.

Today also officially marks the commencement of the opening of the energy retail market to full competition.

It has always been the view of the Government that genuine competition is best achieved through a sale of the Aurora customer list.

Unfortunately, the previous government bungled the customer list sale process and as a consequence initial activity in the market is likely to be more constrained.

The Liberal Government remains committed to the sale of Aurora Energy’s customer list and we are continuing to explore opportunities.

We want Tasmanians to have a choice of electricity retailer which will lead to greater competition in the market to help drive down prices.

We inherited this mess from Labor and we are working to fix it.

There are important changes to the market from today that Tasmanians need to be aware of.

Tasmanians who are seeking more details about the changes are encouraged to go to http://www.power.tas.gov.au for information or call the economic regulator on 03 6166 4422.

The Liberal Government is committed to delivering lower power prices to drive down the cost of living and make Tasmania more attractive for investment, which will grow the economy and create jobs.
Matthew Groom, Minister for Energy