Power Prices, Power Bill and Cost of Living
Power Prices
Ms. Finlay question to Premier, Mr. Rockliff
I note the minister's comments on agriculture. Premier, the agriculture sector is also backing in Labor's strong stance on power prices.
Fruit Growers Tasmania CEO Peter Cornish has highlighted the folly of your current policy and said they believe that: First and foremost, the Tasmanian system should be providing cheap and reliable power for the Tasmanian community and Tasmanian businesses.
The Tasmanian Farms and Graziers Association has also said: Tasmania is uniquely placed in the current national electricity grid debacle to exploit our advantage of cheap, renewable power.
An innovative government should support Tasmanian farmers and businesses… The TFGA is concerned about their members' ability to absorb the forecast potential increases, particularly where it has an impact on dairy irrigators, but production more broadly.
This is clearly something you have immediate control over. Why will you not take action now to ensure Tasmanian businesses only pay Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power by effectively capping prices through a rebate scheme?
Video - YouTube
10th November 2022 - 10:38am
Power Bill
Ms. Finlay question to Premier, Mr. Rockliff
Your minister for Energy has constantly said power prices will not increase until July next year. That is simply not true for the 4000 businesses on market contracts, as both energy expert Marc White and Tasmanian Small Business Council chief executive officer Robert Mallett told ABC radio last night. These businesses are facing a 50 per cent increase in power prices right now. Marc White said, 'When prices go to these levels, the downside risk is businesses facing severe conditions.' What are you going to do to support these businesses and the thousands of people they employ who face such severe conditions right now?
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27th October 2022 - 11:06am
Cost of Living
Mr. Speaker, this evening, I rise on adjournment to speak about the challenges faced by Tasmanians in the current cost of living crisis.
There are so many pressures on so many elements of our community. This week in parliament, having heard responses to questions, Tuesday, Wednesday and today, I do not feel that the Government understands the breadth and the depth of the impacts being felt by Tasmanians.
There are individuals and families, not just in the sections of our community where people have for some time needed community organisations to support them, there are now Tasmanians right across the spectrum who are struggling with the pressure. All we hear this Government talk about is the same old approaches that they have been making to the same challenges in the community.
Right now, there are families across all sectors working two, three or four jobs, arent trying to look after their children and people living on their own who are struggling to meet their individual costs. It is clear to Tasmanian Labor that this Government does not understand and is out of touch with the reality of what is happening to Tasmanians.
On a recent visit to the Ravenswood Starting Point Neighbourhood House we heard of conversations of families - not just one, but multiple families - who are choosing not to have their power connected at the meter. They have it turned off at the mains because they cannot afford their heating and their lighting. Through winter, they have been going to bed early.
That is how extreme these pressures are right now. We are hearing from small businesses - which are the fundamental economic building blocks in our communities, not only in our cities but across the regions - that are also struggling. Using exactly the same power they have used year on year, doing the same services, their bills are pushing them to the point where it is difficult to keep operating.
We are hearing from large businesses, from industrials, about the challenges with the changes of their contracted prices in electricity and power. This is not only a challenge for regular Tasmanians. It feels like the Government is not keeping up. They are not getting the basic understanding of the pressures that are being felt right across the community. Tasmanian Labor believe that Tasmanians should be paying Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power.
Tasmanian Labor believe that Tasmania's small businesses should be paying Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power. Tasmanian Labor know that Tasmanian industrials should be paying Tasmanian prices and Tasmanian power. We have pushed this Government to have an understanding of these concerns. We have given them the opportunity to respond to and take the right position to support Tasmanians, but they are blind.
They cannot hear or do not understand, cannot understand, do not want to understand the reality of the challenges being faced right across Tasmania. It is not only this cost of living crisis challenge with power. There are challenges with access to housing, with access to jobs. There are all sorts of challenges in our community.
On the weekend I was in Bridport, a beautiful coastal town that has a great offering of bakeries, cafes and actually some new offerings in the food market at night time. Retail and hospitality offerings in Bridport have been challenged recently and it has been tough. I was at the Bridport Café, which I have been connecting with for some time now.
The owner said, 'You know what, my barista' - and how essential is a barista to a local cafe - 'my barista has had to leave because at the end of her lease, the lease was not renewed, and she had to move back to Launceston because there are no houses available for my worker here in Bridport.'
To lose a key part of your business because they cannot access housing in a regional community in Tasmania is devastating for that business - and also for the community, the travellers and visitors who come to that place for that experience. I have spoken to farmers, to dairies, to people irrigating, about the challenges of power and accommodation.
The costs of running a dairy or an irrigator - if you can actually get phone access to run those in regional areas. I was recently in Meander talking about the basics of operating your business, and in Meander they do not even have reliable energy or power to run their irrigators or their dairies. There are a lot of challenges right across Tasmania, and also in the regions.
They are challenging not only Tasmanian individuals and families, but small businesses and our industrials and majors across Tasmania. On the jobs front, I share another challenge. There are many people in work, but also many people choosing to work multiple jobs at the moment so they can keep up with their costs.
Going into a trade is a great job, but I recently visited a local iconic business in Launceston, Glasgow Engineering, and had the opportunity to catch up about their work and the types of support that they are providing to a fascinating array of entities across Tasmania - the support they are providing here and across the country.
On LinkedIn, John recently posted concerns he has with accessing people into his jobs. I quote: The current skills shortage is going to kill us. It is nearly impossible to employ a fitter/machinist. We can't even encourage school leavers into the trade. We host work experience from three different schools locally.
There has been so much emphasis on pushing high school students towards university, and I am not saying I disagree because we urgently need doctors as well, but in my day at high school we used to do things like metal work and woodwork and the teacher would encourage those who showed skill in those areas into appropriate trades.
The problem as I see it, is once those students complete year 11 and 12 and then go onto the first and second years of university, before they realise it is not for them, it is too late and they become lost in the system.
Our governments are failing us. Too much money is being wasted on things like football stadiums and not being vested into areas of need, like skills and training. Like health, like manufacturing, training institutes such as TAFE and education. If we don't act soon, we will no longer be the clever country.
Video - YouTube
25th August 2022 - 6:33pm