Mr. Nalder questions the Premier about rising electricity prices in WA, citing an AEMC report. The Premier defends the government's approach, highlighting WA's unique energy system and criticising the opposition's privatisation policies.

AnsweredQoN 1117Legislative Assembly
Asked
10 December 2019
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

ELECTRICITY PRICES — INCREASES
1117. Mr D.C. NALDER to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Can
the Premier confirm that the Australian Energy Market Commission report clearly
shows that the unit price of energy in Western Australia is the second highest
in the nation, and rising, and why is his government being disingenuous about
the true cost of electricity in this state?

AnswerView source ↗

It
is a think tank or a group of academics over east whose focus is the eastern
states. There is this thing over east called the national electricity
market. Western Australia is not part of it. Our system is completely
different. We subsidise from the city, regional and rural tariffs. We have a reliance
upon gas that comes down the pipeline, and, obviously, as gas contracts expire,
there are interactions with that, as we have to pay for the gas. As I said, the
Liberal Party's solution is to privatise; that is not our solution. The
opposition members' solution—they laugh about it—was to
sell off Western Power. We all know that if that had occurred, prices would
have gone up. It is still their policy.

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