May 2, 2014
The Electrical Trades Union has accused Treasurer Tim Nicholls of being “economical with the truth” at Wednesday’s Community Forum in Kingaroy.
In answer to a question, Mr Nicholls said Stanwell Corporation and CS Energy were not profitable electricity generating businesses.
He said CS Energy had never made a profit, and Stanwell was only profitable because it was a coal miner.
But the ETU said figures released by Stanwell showed the generation business was currently returning a profit of $110.5m for the year to date.
State organiser Jason Young said even the Treasurer’s own advisers had privately questioned Mr Nicholl’s assertions when confronted with the facts.
“The Treasurer has once again shown he won’t let the truth get in the way of his PR message, as these figures were released yesterday Mr Nicholls was still parroting tired old lies about generation companies not being profitable,” Mr Young said.
“If he can’t be trusted to tell the truth or he is too lazy to check the facts, what does that say about his competence as Treasurer? He’s not someone I’d like doing my family budget.”
Mr Young said what was particularly concerning was the way the Treasurer “arrogantly dismissed the (electricity) workers’ comments about their company”.
“Even when it was pointed out to Mr Nicholls in the forum that his figures were wrong and therefore his argument that the State needed to sell Stanwell because it was a drain on the public purse was flawed, he didn’t change his rhetoric; he told the workers to their faces, they were wrong,” Mr Young said.
“Mr Nicholls should apologise to the workers and the people of Queensland for misleading them with his Strong Choices PR rubbish.”
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At Thursday morning’s Stanwell “Behind The Fence” briefing at Tarong North, Stanwell Corporation CEO Richard Van Breda seemed to confirm at last part of the union’s position.
Mr Van Breda said Stanwell had contributed $1.2 billion back to the government “contrary to what Tim Nicholls said yesterday”.
He also confirmed that Stanwell had made a profit out of its generating business for the first time in five years.
