26th August 2009 - The Greens have accused Energy Minister Peter Collier of being directed by his bureaucrats after the Minister today backed away from the Premier’s recent indications that power companies Verve and Synergy would be remerged. Minister Collier was speaking at the 9th Energy in Western Australia conference in Perth earlier today.
“The previous ALP Government – with Liberal support – sent WA down a wasteful and inefficient track when they disaggregated the then single government power agency, Western Power,” said Greens energy spokesperson Robin Chapple MLC.
“The disaggregation solved no one’s problems – additional costs were incurred and Western Power’s inappropriate market dominance was not adequately addressed.”
“We have also seen a continued failure to bring significant renewable energy sources on-stream since the Western Power break up.”
The Greens said it seemed as though bureaucratic inertia had forced the Minister’s hand.
“In missing the fundamentals on the issue of power disaggregation, the Minister has simply put addressing this wasteful legacy off to another day.
“The Minister has also today re-iterated his support for a national target of 20% renewables by 2020 but in answer to parliamentary questions clearly had no understanding of how WA we will get there.”
“We will of course review the suggested alternatives of changing market rules and the vesting contract, but we fear that those moves will do nothing to address the real cause of Verve’s woes,” added Mr Chapple.
- For more information please contact Robin Chapple MLC on 0409 379 263
