Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to highlight the damage that rising electricity prices are doing in my electorate of Farrer. The High Court decision to reject restrictions on the amount electricity networks can charge sounds a death knell for many local businesses in regional Australia. I visited a local small business in Finley last week and heard their electricity costs will rise by 250 per cent from July. Sustainable is a word we hear a lot in this House. Believe me, power prices doubling every year for five years is not sustainable, and I quote from their letter: 'The flow on effect is that unemployment will rise and rural areas will suffer from less job opportunities and services.'

Our government is doing what it can to assist, but the High Court finding effectively gives back control to electricity networks to charge whatever they like, and the consequences be dammed. For the average homeowner in Farrer, this has just dumped another $300 onto their annual bill. What we need now is to abolish the so-called Limited Merits Review, the system being exploited by the networks at the expense of their customers. The coalition has a clear policy to reform the LMR, but states like New South Wales, which own network assets, are standing in the way. By doing so, they are clobbering their own constituencies—the businesses and people who keep the economy ticking. This has got to stop, it must stop and it can stop, when the COAG energy ministers meet in July. (Time expired)