❓ Question regarding the cost implications of the 23% renewable energy target by 2020, and the Minister's response highlighting various factors influencing electricity prices, including past government decisions and infrastructure costs. The exchange devolves into a political argument.
AnsweredQoN 66Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTRICITY PRICES — RENEWABLE ENERGY
TARGET
66. Mr D.C. NALDER to the Minister for Energy:
I have a supplementary question. I would love to help the
minister out with the 23 per cent renewable target by 2020. Is it not right
that if we have to have 23 per cent renewable by 2020, 15 per cent is not
necessarily going to deliver cost reflectivity?
TARGET
66. Mr D.C. NALDER to the Minister for Energy:
I have a supplementary question. I would love to help the
minister out with the 23 per cent renewable target by 2020. Is it not right
that if we have to have 23 per cent renewable by 2020, 15 per cent is not
necessarily going to deliver cost reflectivity?
AnswerView source ↗
The issue the member raised is quite correct: a range of
moving parts goes into the cost of energy, and the RET is one. Western Power is
about to start its next access arrangement process, and that will be another. A
range of factors will go into the cost of providing electricity when people
turn it on at home and eventually get their Synergy bill. As the Minister for
Energy representing over two million people who have to pay their power bill, I
am keen to ensure we get to a scenario at which those impacts —
Dr M.D. Nahan : By hitting them with a 15 per cent
increase!
Mr B.S. WYATT : I am not going to do 25 per cent, like
the previous government did! The current Leader of the Opposition did 25 per
cent, plus, six months later, 16 per cent plus 10 per cent.
Dr M.D. Nahan interjected.
Mr B.S. WYATT : As I said, the Leader of the Opposition
can pop his blue pills and think he has fallen from the sky and—poof!—landed
there without any record or history in this place. Let me tell you, I have not
forgotten for one minute the record he has brought to this place. I know the
Leader of the Opposition talked a big game in energy, but his delivery was
woeful, other than simply time and again—I quoted him a minute ago—when
he upped it and upped it. I am trying to explain to the people of Western Australia
that it is not just about the Leader of the Opposition increasing electricity
bills; there has to be an end game.
Dr M.D. Nahan : Gouging!
Mr B.S. WYATT : Gouging!
The SPEAKER : Leader of the Opposition!
Dr M.D. Nahan : He was baiting me.
The SPEAKER : I am so sorry for you! I remember the
previous Speaker—I always go back to previous Speakers because you
learn from them—saying that you might not like the answer that is
coming, but that is the answer. I am trying to give you leeway with your
continuing interjections because you are the Leader of the Opposition, but it
does not give you carte blanche.
Mr B.S. WYATT : There is one final point I will make
because I think it is worth mentioning. Other issues and other decisions of
government that have ended up on all our Synergy bills are things like the
Leader of the Opposition's $300 million blowout on Muja AB. We are all
paying for that. I went down and closed it down the other day, because that was
such a good decision by the Leader of the Opposition! It is similar to the
blowout on the feed-in tariff. There are so many things that go into the cost
of providing energy, not just the actual costs of energy. That is why,
ultimately, the Leader of the Opposition's particular characteristic is
feeding through in respect of not just debt and taxes, but also energy bills.
moving parts goes into the cost of energy, and the RET is one. Western Power is
about to start its next access arrangement process, and that will be another. A
range of factors will go into the cost of providing electricity when people
turn it on at home and eventually get their Synergy bill. As the Minister for
Energy representing over two million people who have to pay their power bill, I
am keen to ensure we get to a scenario at which those impacts —
Dr M.D. Nahan : By hitting them with a 15 per cent
increase!
Mr B.S. WYATT : I am not going to do 25 per cent, like
the previous government did! The current Leader of the Opposition did 25 per
cent, plus, six months later, 16 per cent plus 10 per cent.
Dr M.D. Nahan interjected.
Mr B.S. WYATT : As I said, the Leader of the Opposition
can pop his blue pills and think he has fallen from the sky and—poof!—landed
there without any record or history in this place. Let me tell you, I have not
forgotten for one minute the record he has brought to this place. I know the
Leader of the Opposition talked a big game in energy, but his delivery was
woeful, other than simply time and again—I quoted him a minute ago—when
he upped it and upped it. I am trying to explain to the people of Western Australia
that it is not just about the Leader of the Opposition increasing electricity
bills; there has to be an end game.
Dr M.D. Nahan : Gouging!
Mr B.S. WYATT : Gouging!
The SPEAKER : Leader of the Opposition!
Dr M.D. Nahan : He was baiting me.
The SPEAKER : I am so sorry for you! I remember the
previous Speaker—I always go back to previous Speakers because you
learn from them—saying that you might not like the answer that is
coming, but that is the answer. I am trying to give you leeway with your
continuing interjections because you are the Leader of the Opposition, but it
does not give you carte blanche.
Mr B.S. WYATT : There is one final point I will make
because I think it is worth mentioning. Other issues and other decisions of
government that have ended up on all our Synergy bills are things like the
Leader of the Opposition's $300 million blowout on Muja AB. We are all
paying for that. I went down and closed it down the other day, because that was
such a good decision by the Leader of the Opposition! It is similar to the
blowout on the feed-in tariff. There are so many things that go into the cost
of providing energy, not just the actual costs of energy. That is why,
ultimately, the Leader of the Opposition's particular characteristic is
feeding through in respect of not just debt and taxes, but also energy bills.
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