Mr. Love questions the Minister for Energy about continuing the doubled $240 payment for electricity outages in Western Australia. The Minister clarifies the payment is not full compensation but an acknowledgement of inconvenience.

AnsweredQoN 31Legislative Assembly
Asked
14 February 2024
Portfolio
Energy

QuestionView source ↗

ELECTRICITY — OUTAGES — COMPENSATION
31. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Energy:
I have a supplementary question.
The SPEAKER : I feel as though
you have had three supplementary questions already, but, yes, a supplementary.
Mr R.S. LOVE : Thank you,
Madam Speaker, for your indulgence.
The minister has recognised that, in
this case, a $120 payment for outages was insignificant, and he has doubled it.
Will the minister commit to continuing the $240 payment for power outages into
the future?

AnswerView source ↗

The $240 amount was never meant to
be full compensation—not if it is for a household refrigerator in Perth
or a business in the regions. There is no way to compensate someone for the
inconvenience of a power cut. It is very inconvenient. We may not be able to
put a dollar value on the inconvenience to a householder who has to get their
kids off to school in the morning. It is incredibly inconvenient. We have never
said that this is a compensation, dollar-for-dollar equation. It is a payment
of appreciation that a person has been inconvenienced, and we thought it was
right and proper, under the circumstances of that extraordinary situation in
which the power cuts were prolonged, that the $120 payment should be doubled to
$240.

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