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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 181 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 23 March 2022 by Dr D.J. Honey

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

WESTERN POWER — OUTAGES — REVIEW

181. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Energy:

I refer to the Shepherd review into the appalling Christmas power outages, and I quote —

� Western Power spent � ($368 million) less on distribution network � investment � than it originally planned �

Why was that money not spent to ensure that our system performed better?

Mr W.J. JOHNSTON replied:

I thank the member very much for the question. It is a very interesting question, because the report also shows that expenditure under the previous Liberal government was over $1 billion short of allowable expenditure. It is simply not true to say what the member claims. As the Shepherd inquiry shows, every investment request by Western Power was supported by the government. The review found that the state government approved all funding requests made by Western Power towards cap improvements to the distribution network over the past five years. The report also states that there was no evidence that investment was delayed or did not occur due to regulatory or government decisions and that this was not an issue of lack of state government resourcing. Every cent that Western Power requested for capital investment in the network was delivered, and we will continue to fund the network as requested by Western Power.

The Shepherd review also shows that it was not a lack of maintenance that led to any of the Christmas outages. I repeat: I apologise to all customers, all consumers and the community for the disruption at Christmas. It impacted too many people and was very disappointing. Unlike the Liberal Party when it was in power—it never took responsibility for any actions or outcomes—I again say that I am responsible for the outcome, and I have apologised. I also commissioned the Shepherd inquiry, which shows a pathway for improvement. I have spoken and written to both the chairman and the chief executive officer of Western Power and asked them for an implementation plan so that they will deliver on the recommendations—all the recommendations—of the Shepherd inquiry. In addition, I want to be able to tell people that, unlike the Liberal and National Parties, we are increasing the extended outage payment from $80 to $120. We are the first government since 2005 to increase the extended outage payment. Only a Labor government does that. We will continue to invest in the network and make sure that it delivers for Western Australians.