HORIZON POWER —
TARIFFS
586. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Energy:
I
have a supplementary question. How can the minister justify imposing tariff
increases on small businesses, charities and local governments and
sharing the pain during this pandemic while the government continues to claim
that we are all in this together?
Mr W.J.
JOHNSTON replied:
It
is pretty easy, Mr Speaker, because businesses and charities are not paying
their electricity bill at the moment. They were given a $2 500 credit in
May. The average bill for a person on the L1 tariff for Synergy is $2 800.
No-one on those regulated tariffs with an average electricity consumption will
be paying a bill until next year because the government has given them credit
for $2 500. The government has paid them that money. They will not be paying
their electricity bill for a long period.
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Vasse!
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Even if
they have double the average electricity consumption for a Synergy customer,
they will go five months without having to pay an electricity bill.
Mr V.A. Catania: What about
local governments? You've frozen their rates.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Local
government are not trading enterprises. They are taxing organisations.
Mr V.A. Catania interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, member! I
have given you enough leeway. That is enough.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Horizon Power
has simply continued to move towards cost reflectivity for the streetlight
tariff. But I want to emphasise that small businesses and ordinary consumers on
the regulated tariffs in Horizon's area
of coverage do not pay the full cost of electricity. In this financial year,
they will get a $187 million subsidy from Western Power, which is
collected from mums and dads in the south west of the state, to make sure that
their electricity charge is no higher than the electricity charge in the south
west.