CRAIG INGRAM MP - MEMBER FOR GIPPSLAND EAST
Issued: Thursday 29 November 2007
|
|
MEDIA
RELEASE FROM CRAIG INGRAM MP - MEMBER FOR GIPPSLAND EAST Issued: Thursday 29 November 2007 |
The Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has highlighted a range of major inequities and contemptible cross-subsidies that Latrobe Valley residents are bearing for electricity generation.
In State Parliament last week, Mr Ingram put forward his objections and outlined the inequities that have been built into the flawed electricity privatisation model.
He was speaking on the National Electricity (Victoria) Amendment Bill 2007, which aims to take Victoria’s “watchdog” capabilities on electricity and pass them to the Commonwealth. He was the only MP to vote against the Bill.
“It is amazing that no-one seems to be standing up for the ratepayers, businesses and residents of the Latrobe Valley when we hand over the regulatory powers locking in those inequities,” Mr Ingram said.
“The Labor Party has abandoned the Latrobe Valley and shunned the commitment that the party made before 1999 to remove the massive subsidies that Latrobe Valley ratepayers are forced to pay to prop-up the power generators.
“The Labor Government has also failed to implement its 1999 election commitment for a maximum uniform tariff to protect rural consumers from having to bear the cost of the rural distribution network.
“The subsidies to the power generators were put in as a sweetener to the new private power companies by the Kennett Government when they sold the power companies.
“The power companies pay just 10% of what any another business would be required to pay in the Latrobe Valley at the same time. Ratepayers in Latrobe City pay an implied rate of 13.7, which is almost exactly four times the implied rate paid by the ratepayers of Toorak and South Yarra.
“The State Government has refused to redress the rates system and honour their 1999 election commitment made to local residents
“Gippsland Water ratepayers are required to pay massive subsidies to the power companies, which should be borne by the state.
“Gippsland Water provides 70% of its water services and 65% of its wastewater services to a small number of large customers, yet Gippsland Water’s revenue from those major users is just 25% of its income.
“This ratepayer subsidy will only increase with the Gippsland Water Factory
“Not only has the State Government failed to address this massive inequity, but it has since increased the royalties which it receives from the power companies by more than 100%, about $40 million a year.
“They are transferring to a Commonwealth regulation and pricing locking in these inequities and subsidies that Latrobe residents pay.
“All current local MPs apparently support this as they voted for the Bill, transferring the regulatory powers to the Commonwealth.
“The privatisation model that all of the political parties currently support and endorse means that power consumers in country areas will forever pay a higher price for electricity through the costs of distribution, maintenance costs and line loss.
“These have been levied against rural consumers while metropolitan consumers were ‘ring fenced’ from these costs.
“Latrobe residents should question the silence of the Liberals, Nationals and Labor on these cross-subsidies,” Mr Ingram concluded.
