November 13, 2017
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation says it is encouraging that all parties in the Queensland election campaign had announced some positive commitments towards energy affordability.
However, QFF president Stuart Armitage said has was yet to see the “holistic solution” that farmers needed.
“The LNP and Katter’s Australia Party (KAP) have committed to addressing the network assets optimisation issue – the LNP by writing down Energy Queensland’s regulated asset base (RAB), KAP by valuing the assets at actual cost rather than replacement cost,” Mr Armitage said.
“This is an important shift as the ‘gold plating’ of the poles and wires is the number one driver of electricity price increases.
“But the LNP commitment needs to go further, as it only writes the total RAB down by about 6.5 per cent when 50 per cent is required to deliver real price relief.
“The LNP’s $75 million ‘Food and Fibre Transition Payment’ for farmers on Tariffs 62, 65 and 66 is also a constructive first step.
“But when the three-year $1400 payment runs out we will still be left with unsuitable tariffs. Encouragingly, KAP have committed to directly dealing with the transitional tariffs issue by indefinitely freezing the proposed changes.
“KAP, The Greens and One Nation have all committed, in different ways, to addressing the four ‘hidden taxes’ on the Government-owned corporations that accounted for about $3 billion in government revenue last year – about $12 billion over the past three years.
“Labor has best addressed on-farm demand management and energy efficiency with its commitment to a $10 million extension of the Energy Savers Program that will conduct 200 extra energy audits and offer a 50 per cent co-contribution (capped at $20,000) towards the cost of implementing changes recommended through the audits.
“However, without addressing the price side, Labor must significantly ramp up this program so more farmers can benefit and evolve the program over time to address broader productivity issues.
“While it is encouraging to see our politicians acknowledge and begin to address the complicated failures associated with Queensland’s energy crisis, no party has offered the holistic approach our sector needs.
“The next Queensland Government must be willing to look beyond the one or two areas their party has identified and commit to a longer-term agenda to deliver change.
“There is still time before November 25 for parties to hone their offerings, and for the sake of our sector and the Queensland economy more broadly, let’s hope they do.”
