Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

not only is there a provision for the ACCC to ruthlessly pursue anybody who fails to pass on the electricity and gas price reductions, but regulators are already making decisions. I want to take the release of the Tasmanian Economic Regulator from 19 June. The Tasmanian Economic Regulator came to a very interesting conclusion. The regulator authorised a reduction of 7.8 per cent in the bills faced by Tasmanians today for their electricity. This is not a failure to increase; this is an actual reduction of 7.8 per cent. That is what Tasmanian families will receive if they have the carbon tax bills passed. The regulator went on to say that this is 'as a result of the energy market's expectation that the carbon price will be removed with retrospective effect from 1 July 2014'. But it is not just in Tasmania. In Queensland, the regulator has set down lower prices. In New South Wales, the gas regulator has set down lower prices. In the ACT, it is 11.6 per cent reduction compared with what would otherwise have been the case.

When we look at the private sector, over recent days we have had Origin, Alinta and Energy Australia all say that electricity prices would be lower and the full cost of the carbon tax would be passed through. Only an hour ago we saw AGL put out a release saying they will pass through the full cost of the carbon tax once the bills passed.

Mr Husic interjecting—

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