Resident Chris Armstrong has dubbed Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) figures that cite electricity prices will rise by 18 per cent from July 1, and have increased by 70 per cent over the past six years, as “absolutely outrageous”.
“How can they justify it?” he said.
Mr Armstrong’s anger about power price hikes has been echoed by a large band of residents who, alongside local politicians and furious campaigners, want answers as to why the electricity companies are putting profit before people’s welfare.
Under the final determination of IPART, local households will pay on average of an extra $427 a year in electricity prices and local small businesses will pay an extra $555 a year.
Gas bills are also set to increase by 9 per cent to 15 per cent, from July 1.
Consumer Phil Saunders said the increases were “disgusting and going to hurt us all”.
And he is not alone.
Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams said the increasing electricity costs will have a substantial impact on households and small business.
“Over half of the proposed increase in electricity prices is because of Labor’s carbon tax,” she said.
However, Mrs Williams said the NSW Government was committed to acting in the interests of NSW consumers to keep electricity prices as low as possible, especially in light of the carbon tax.
“From July 1, over 540,000 families will be eligible to receive the Government’s new $75 Family Energy Rebate, rising to $150 by 2014.
“The Government’s Low Income Household Rebate will also increase to $215 from July 1, rising to $235 by 2014.”
Senator Bill Heffernan, Patron Senator for Lyne, said, “In about two weeks’ time, local families and businesses will be paying the world’s highest electricity prices to pay for the world’s biggest carbon tax.
“Every time people flick the light switch, they will be asking, ‘Can I afford to pay this carbon tax bill?’” he said.
“The carbon tax is a major component of this 19.7 per cent electricity price increase — and it is a blow to local families and local businesses.”
Although Independent Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott is calling on the NSW Government to fix its broken promise and cap power company dividends flowing to the NSW Budget, he believes the carbon tax is not the culprit for IPART’s decision.
“IPART confirmed that carbon pricing accounts for only 8 per cent of that increase, and that the real culprit is ‘poles and wires’ charges, which have gone up by more than 70 per cent,” he said.
“You only have to look at what the state-owned power companies like Transgrid are paying the NSW Government, to understand the reason power bills are going up by so much.
“Last week’s NSW Budget reveals that power network dividends will increase from $639 million last year to $901 million next year — an incredible 41 per cent increase.
“The O’Farrell Government will skim $242 million more next year than it did last year, roughly $80 extra per customer, despite the O’Farrell Opposition’s promise to cap dividends.
“Households and small businesses are paying dearly for big power profits — and those profits are based on a lie.
“It’s no wonder that landholders affected by Transgrid’s Stroud to Gloucester transmission line question whether the project is designed to meet power demand or to make money.”
Mr Oakeshott said that, unlike the Commonwealth’s carbon price compensation, most households and small businesses would receive no NSW Government compensation.
Mr Oakeshott said that both state and federal energy regulators are for the rules that result in super-profits to power networks to be changed — a call he supports.
“The NSW Government should do what the former Queensland Government did when its state-owned power network companies won windfall gains under the rules, and direct the companies not to pass the costs on to customers,” Mr Oakeshott said.
Australian Conservation Foundation Climate Change Campaigner Claire Maries, who was one of the organisers of week’s Clean Energy Forum at the Glasshouse, said, despite cost increases, clean energy is great for the Mid-North Coast.
“It’s now a $260 billion industry globally, and Australia could be winning this race,” she said.
“With strong new clean energy programs like the government is introducing, together with the price on carbon pollution, there could be 6500 extra jobs on the Mid-North coast. It’s good for jobs and good for the economy.”
Story: Kate Yates
