June 2, 2016
The new electricity business formed from the merger of the two government-owned corporations Ergon Energy and Energex will be known as “Energy Queensland”.
State Treasurer Curtis Pitt made the announcement and unveiled the business’s new logo at its headquarters in Townsville on Thursday.
“Removing duplication in areas like administration, shared services, boards, management and corporate costs we are creating a more efficient business and adopting industry best practice so that the available funds can be re-invested into better services for all Queenslanders, while retaining public ownership of the State’s electricity assets,” Mr Pitt said.
“Rather than sell these assets to the private sector and watch power prices soar, the Palaszczuk Government is delivering on its election commitment to reduce costs and make these businesses work better for Queenslanders.”
Mr Pitt said the new logo – which reflects the State borders – represented how the new business would reach every corner if Queensland.
Energy Minister Mark Bailey said Energy Queensland had decided to set up its headquarters in Townsville to maintain a strong regional presence.
“This new business will support the development of regional Queensland and will have a clear focus on providing regional Queenslanders with access to the innovative new products and services available in other parts of Australia,” he said.
“We will continue to ensure regional customers pay a similar price to SEQ.
“This year we’ll spend almost $500 million subsidising the cost of electricity in regional Queensland, supporting 700,000 regional Queensland customers.”
Minister Assisting the Premier on North Australia Coralee O’Rourke said the new company was on track to open its Townsville headquarters in coming weeks.
“I’m very excited that this merger will bring more jobs to North Queensland and look forward to the economic activity this will bring to our region over the coming years,” Mrs O’Rourke said.
“Frontline staff will continue to operate in their respective regions to ensure the network businesses continue to be leaders in emergency response and to ensure the lights remain on for Queensland businesses and households.
“I want to stress that there will be no forced redundancies.”
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More govt spin :
“Rather than sell these assets to the private sector and watch power prices soar, the Palaszczuk Government is delivering on its election commitment to reduce costs and make these businesses work better for Queenslanders.”
My power bill was $200 + GST 220 + “service Fee” (what bloody service?) $108 + GST plus meter reading $17 + GST – typical govt (all of them) double dipping and adding taxes by calling them levies …..
as you see the “levies” are as expensive as the power bill.
“Removing duplication in areas like administration, shared services, boards, management and corporate costs we are creating a more efficient business and adopting industry best practice so that the available funds can be re-invested into better services for all Queenslanders, while retaining public ownership of the State’s electricity assets,” Mr Pitt said.
Seriously Annastacia Palaszczuk and Curtis Pitt. There are 1000 Ergon employees (25%-30% of the total Ergon headcount) based in Brisbane (all of which are duplicated in Energex) while the closest front-line Ergon staff, depots & assets don’t exist until you reach Toowoomba to the west and Wide Bay to the North and all branch away from Brisbane, so why not rationalize these 2000 positions to a level that the business needs, which will reduce the overheads (OPEX) substantially instead of allowing them to live where they want to because its convenient to them (relocate those that are willing or replace those that aren’t) and locate them where they are required across the State, not in a location where they need to travel just to perform their jobs and work with their other team members and get paid travel allowances for it.
Does this mean even higher prices for electricity prices in Queensland Could someone in the Queensland Government go and look at what Canadian and USA citizens pay? I see no reason at all why governments should control Electricity Generation, obviously they can not do it efficiently, consumers have to pay for this out of their hip pocket.