WESTERN POWER, HORIZON
POWER AND SYNERGY — PRIVATISATION AND DEREGULATION POLICIES
825. Mr
D.R. MICHAEL to the Minister for Energy:
I refer to the commitment that the
McGowan Labor government made to the people of Western Australia that it would
stop the Liberal Party from privatising Western Power and keep it in public
hands. Can the minister outline to the house what has been the impact in the
eastern states of failed privatisation and deregulation policies, and can the
minister advise the house what would happen in WA if this government adopted
such policies?
Mr W.J.
JOHNSTON replied:
What an excellent question from an
excellent member of Parliament! It is interesting that when the electricity
system in Victoria was privatised and deregulated, prices went up by 200 per
cent. That is what happened.
Mr D.C. Nalder: And what
have they done?
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: The member
for Bateman called out, ''What have they done since?'' It does
not matter. Prices doubled.
Mr D.C. Nalder interjected
The SPEAKER: Member for
Bateman!
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Prices
have not fallen in Victoria. They have not continued to rise, but that does not
mean that they have fallen. This is a failed policy. The policy proposed on
Sunday by the Liberal Party is privatisation by stealth. What the Liberal Party
is intending to do is to give away Synergy's profits and keep its
losses. That is what the Liberal Party is proposing to do.
Mr D.T. Redman interjected
The SPEAKER: Member for
Warren–Blackwood, I call you to order for the first time.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: I tell
members what: yesterday on radio, Mr Gareth Parker asked the shadow minister
how much he thought electricity prices would come down. What did the member for
Bateman say? He said —
Oh, you know, that's � that's
a bit of a, you know, multi-million dollar question.
The member cannot even tell us what
his policy would achieve! Everybody should remember that every dollar would
need to be topped up by taxpayers, because this policy would increase the
losses by Synergy and taxpayers would have to put in money to keep Synergy
whole.
Mr D.C. Nalder interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Bateman, I call you to order for the first time.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: The member
quoted Tasmania. Ninety-seven per cent of residents in Tasmania still buy their
electricity from the government.
Mr D.T. Redman interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Warren–Blackwood, I heard you the first time and I heard you the second
time, so I call you to order again.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: It is
ridiculous to compare Western Australia with Tasmania. If we compare Western Australia
with South Australia, guess what? Prices are more expensive there. That is where
it has been privatised. Let us look at Tasmania. This is what the member wants
us to look at. This is a map of Tasmania. Members can see that it is a distance
of 330 kilometres to the north west coast, 240 kilometres to the north east
coast and 150 kilometres to the west. That
is the size of Tasmania. We can translate that onto a map of Western Australia.
It goes out to York, does not even
get to Geraldton—it goes just past Dongara—and does not even
get to Manjimup. We can look at it on a bigger map. Of course it is easy
to provide cheap electricity to a tiny little grid that uses hydropower.
Everybody could run a system like that. If the Liberal Party is saying that it
is going to abandon regional customers, of course there will be cheaper
electricity. We know that this is not a policy for Western Australia; this is a
policy for a small state like Tasmania. South Australia, which is comparable
with Western Australia, has higher electricity prices. Tasmania does not even have competition. Ninety-seven per cent of
consumers in Tasmania continue to buy electricity from the government entity. There has been no
genuine competition in Tasmania. I remind people how big the south west
interconnected system is. It is 830 kilometres north to south and 750 kilometres
east to west. That is before we count Horizon Power.
The opposition's policy is a risk to all consumers,
but mostly it is a risk to regional consumers. This is the challenge for the
National Party. Where does it stand? Does it stand with the uniform tariff
policy, which states that no matter where someone lives in the state, who they
are, what their name is or who their friends are, they pay the same price for
electricity, or does the National Party agree with the Leader of the
Opposition, who wants prices to be cheaper in the metropolitan area than in
country areas?