Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the cheers of encouragement from the other side. Over 458,000 Australian families and 39,000 small businesses are getting a better deal on their energy prices thanks to the pressure from the Morrison government on the big energy companies. The energy companies have been responsible for some shady practices: price-gouging and loyalty taxes, to name a few. There is an urgent need for culture change in those companies and in that industry, and it requires strong legislation. Origin Energy, Alinta, AGL, Energy Australia, Next Business Energy, WindConnect and Powershop are lowering standing offers on 1 January 2019.

If we're up-front about the Australian energy market, we know that they haven't been serving their consumers well. The ACCC has pointed a finger at the energy companies, saying retailers have played a major role in poor outcomes for consumers, but the Labor Party has also played a role in poor outcomes for the consumers. As I said before, we heard the member for Port Adelaide yell out something about Western Australia, and this is a perfect example of how Labor do energy policies. You have to watch what they do, not what they say.

An article by Brendon O'Neill on 13 March 2017 says:

The Labor party staunchly opposed Colin Barnett's proposal to sell Western Power – the distribution network spanning most of the state outside the South West. While the Liberals, Nationals and ACCC advocated that privatising could reduce power bills as much as 51%, Labor warned the sale would lead to higher prices as well as lower maintenance and service standards since electricity distribution is not a competitive industry. With McGowan's convincing victory in the election, Western Power will remain in public hands.

That's not exactly true, because, whatever happened, another article, written by Paul Murray, 'Opinion: Labor and anti-privatisation McGowan Government are saying one thing and doing another', says:

Despite outrage at the idea of selling Western Power, it appears Labor has just sold part of Synergy.

After their faux outrage at selling Western Power, they've now sold off part of Synergy. They've all gone quiet. This is how Labor run their electricity and energy policy. They just put prices up. That's all they do. An article by Daniel Mercer in The West Australian,'WA households could be hit by 15% rise in electricity prices', says:

WA households could be hit with flat electricity price increases of more than 15 per cent over the next three years as the State Government shores up power provider Synergy's financial position.

Don't worry about the consumers; worry about the energy company! The article continues:

After consumers were stung with an 11 per cent increase in power bills this year, Energy Minister Ben Wyatt signalled the Government was aiming to repeat the dose in coming years.

Mr Wyatt told a Budget estimates hearing into Synergy that the forecast improvement in the power supplier's bottom line for this financial year was largely because of the decision to impose the price increase on "fixed" charges.

For residential customers, this is the supply charge and is separate from consumption charges.

You'll be gobsmacked: after they came into government, within a month this supply charge 'was increased to 98.9c a day from 48.6c last year—an increase of $169 a year' for every WA consumer.

Mr Gorman interjecting—

I see the member for Perth in here applauding the fact that consumers have to pay an extra $169 a year. The article continues:

A typical household power bill is $1722 a year, according to Treasury.

With assumed price increases in the State Budget of 7 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent between 2018-19 and 2020-21, Mr Wyatt said "there is probably still more to come" …

So all WA consumers should just listen to Ben Wyatt: there are still more power price increases to come in Western Australia. This is what Labor do. Don't watch what they say; watch what they do.

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