The numbers are breathtaking. On the east coast of Australia (which means most households in the nation) they are looking at 15 – 20% increases next month on electricity bills which are already at bleeding point.
Get a grip on these numbers:
Charis Chang, News.com —
POWER prices are set to rocket after three major retailers announced increases of up to 20 per cent and $600 a year for the average customer in some states.
Origin, EnergyAustralia and AGL have all announced price increases for electricity and gas starting from July 1.
Small businesses may be the hardest hit, especially Origin customers in South Australia, which will see prices rise by a whopping $1453 a year when increases to gas and electricity bills are combined.
The biggest increase for residential customers will be for AGL customers in ACT, who will pay an extra $579 a year for a combined electricity and gas rise.
In NSW, residential EnergyAustralia customers will see electricity prices increase by up to 19.6 per cent. Origin Energy customers will get a 16.1 per cent rise.
The price hikes will take effect from July 1.
Many are blaming a “failure of energy policy”, but miss the point entirely — this is not failure but success. The aim of those energy policies was to close down coal fired stations and it worked. The Renewable Energy Target, the carbon tax, and other anti “carbon” policies did what they were supposed to do and forced the closure of both the Port Augusta power stations and Hazelwood (which supplied as much as 5% of Australia’s electricity). That left us dependent on gas instead of having the flexibility to ignore the current gas price outlandish cost.
NSW and SA customers walloped:
NSW, which came close to blackouts amid soaring temperatures in February, faces the steepest percentage increases for power, with business bills set to rise 18 per cent or an average $748 a year while households will pay about $282 more, up 16.1 per cent.
But South Australians, who faced blackouts from September and who already pay most for power, will face the biggest dollar increases. Businesses are set to pay an average $920 or 15.3 per cent more, while households will pay $313 or 15.9 per cent more.
Turnbull’s answer is to take a problem caused by too much government meddling and regulation and make it more regulated and meddled, now messing with the gas market.
If customers could use more coal fired electricity, that would ease pressure on gas supplies. If states were allowing more gas exploration, that too would help. The answer is less regulation not more. The free market would solve this.