Queensland’s premier, Steven Miles, will promise his state’s households they are going to all the time have the most affordable energy costs of all mainland states within the nationwide electrical energy market if Labor is elected this month.
Miles introduced on Wednesday that he would arrange a second state-owned energy retailer, akin to Ergon, which operates in regional Queensland.
On Thursday, he’ll announce a plan to make use of the agency to create an “energy price guarantee” that Queensland family payments would stay the bottom within the nationwide electrical energy market (Nem), which doesn’t embrace Western Australia.
“I am acting to ensure household electricity prices stay low for Queensland families,” Miles mentioned.
“We can make this energy price guarantee, because Queenslanders own our energy assets.”
Queensland’s common family electrical energy invoice was about $315 quarterly, in contrast with $320 in Victoria and $345 in NSW or $372 in Tasmania, in accordance with a CanStar Blue survey carried out final 12 months. Simply Western Australia was cheaper, at $296.
However many Queensland households haven’t but paid an electrical energy invoice this monetary 12 months, because of a $1,000 vitality rebate supplied within the state funds.
The state additionally has a legislated 80% renewable vitality goal by 2035. Miles pledged to fulfil the purpose as considered one of his first commitments as premier.
The opposition backed the federal government’s 75% by 2035 emissions discount goal, however voted towards the renewables purpose and has promised to repeal its laws.
The LNP’s chief, David Crisafulli, known as Labor’s state-owned vitality retailer coverage “bizarre” and “desperation politics” on Wednesday. Earlier this week, he additionally revealed a plan to increase the lifetime of the Callide unit B coal-fired energy station previous its closure date of 2028.
He refused to disclose the price of the plan on Wednesday. “Those assets have to be used in a way to ensure that we have base load power whilst we transition to the renewable energy of the future,” he mentioned.
“It is vital, you have to find a balance … and a big factor of our plan is to make sure that we have that base load power so Queenslanders can afford their electricity.”
Miles mentioned “more renewables connected to the super grid and greater investment will put downward pressure on prices”.
