Here we go again! Swapping the Deckchairs for the Power Utility Shuffle
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Greens WA spokesperson on Energy, Robin Chapple MLC, today expressed exasperation at yet another fiddle with administrative arrangements at WA’s power utilities.
“The Premier has long railed against the original split of the old Western Power, yet for nearly five years while at the helm, he failed to act,” said Mr Chapple.
“Perhaps it is no coincidence that this announcement has come just days after the departure of Peter Collier from the Energy portfolio.
“It is hilarious that the old warhorse of the free market, Mike Nahan, should find himself in the uncomfortable position of having to preside over this aggregation of public sector power as his first official act as Minister for Energy,” laughed Mr Chapple.
“Let’s remember that this mess is squarely one of Mr Barnett’s own making – it was his direction to his Upper House members to push the legislation through that led directly to Western Power being torn asunder in 2006,” Mr Chapple continued.
“This is nothing more than a simplistic organizational reshuffle, which does nothing to address the fundamental problems in WA’s energy market.
“How will we ever get competition from other providers, particularly renewables, when there is this massive state-owned enterprise effectively stifling their prospects of raising sufficient risk capital?” he said.
“The end result will be that, down the track, the taxpayers will again be asked to fork out the multi-millions of dollars required to fund extra fossil-fuelled generation capacity, when it should be renewables leading the charge – as detailed in the Greens Energy 2029 plan,” he concluded.
Energy 2029 plan: http://www.greenswa.net.au/energy2029
