Labor hiding threat of higher electricity prices

South Australians are warned that among the many risks of a potential return to a Labor Government next year are higher electricity prices and increased taxes for households and small businesses.

The warning comes after the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) today revealed that the average South Australian energy bill is $422 lower now with a Marshall Liberal Government compared to when Labor was removed from office.

“The $422 decrease in the average South Australian energy bill delivered by the Marshall Government has reversed the large increases which Labor inflicted on households in their last two years in office,” said Deputy Premier Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“Data reported by the AER confirms that the median annual bill is now $1,784 which is $422 less than the $2,206 median annual bill when Labor left power.

“Delivering $422 of savings in just over three years is an outstanding result for South Australian households and small businesses and highlights the danger of electing the Labor Party that delivered a statewide blackout and the highest electricity prices in world.

“Unfortunately, Peter Malinauskas has learnt nothing from Labor’s past failures and wants to spend a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money on an experimental power plant that is likely to drive up prices.

“Peter Malinauskas cannot continue to hide his dubious financial modelling – he must release the full modelling and full costings today, or ditch his fanciful project.

“Labor’s plan is to build a more expensive form of power generation and is the sort of government intervention that discourages the strong private renewable energy investment we’re currently seeing.

“Labor are repeat offenders when it comes to wasting taxpayers’ money on fanciful projects while simultaneously forcing skyrocketing power prices.

“Labor purchased nine dirty diesel generators at a cost of over $600 million - hundreds of millions more than they claimed – while simultaneously increasing household power bills by $477 in just two years.

“Labor’s desire to spend $1 billion of taxpayers’ money on an experimental power plant will also result in higher taxes, reduced services or increased power prices – Labor must come clean and say which one of these they prefer.

“Peter Malinauskas claims his experimental hydrogen plant will cost $593 million - a laughable underestimate when compared to expert costings from the CSIRO and US Department of Energy – and that’s why he’s hiding the full modelling and costings for his deceptive plan.

“Not only are electricity prices substantially down, the Marshall Government’s energy policies have turned South Australia from worst to best in the NEM on electricity reliability.

“South Australia has gone from having 7 million customer hours of outages due to security issues and lack of supply under Labor, to no forced load shedding events in this term of Government.

“In addition, South Australia is now operating at 62% renewable energy and forging ahead towards net-100% renewable energy by 2030.

“On all three counts – more affordable, more reliable, and cleaner – the Marshall Government is delivering for South Australians and fixing Labor’s mess.

“And there’s more good news to come, with the SA-NSW Interconnector soon to commence construction delivering more renewable energy, more energy security, lower electricity prices and a huge boost to regional employment.

“The Marshall Liberal Government is recognised internationally for its renewable energy and hydrogen industry development.

“Labor’s continuing to hide the details of their harmful energy policies must end today.”