The Morrison Government’s continuing failure on energy policy is seeing energy prices and profits skyrocket while energy jobs and maintenance continues to be slashed across the network.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor continues to prove a failure in his role as the “minister for getting energy prices down” after National Energy Market (NEM) states saw wholesale prices increase by 158% over the last four years.
Electrical Trades Union National Secretary Allen Hicks said in addition to increased costs and profits for energy companies, there have been sweeping cuts to maintenance across the network while jobs have been slashed.
“Angus Taylor is failing in his role because he has no plan for getting household energy prices down and that’s the one job Scott Morrison gave him,” he said.
“Taylor is more interested in scoring political points than seeing the NEM is maintained and upgraded to ensure energy is delivered to households cheaply and efficiently.”
The ETU National Secretary said the energy minister’s ideological objections to the renewable energy were blinding him to the fact Australia’s electrical grid was already going through a much-needed upgrade unlike anything since the 1950s, as energy production diversified and decentralised.
“Energy Minister Taylor came out against AEMO recommendations for upgrades to the Victorian grid for no other reason than his ideological objections to anything associated with renewable energy,” Mr Hicks said.
“Taylor completely ignores the fact that Victoria’s grid has been neglected by the private power companies, putting pressure on prices and putting the public at risk with cuts to maintenance and upgrades.
“Taylor claims to represent the interests of farmers, but what about the people who build and maintain rural residents’ energy supply?
“Angus Taylor has made no representations about the Essential Energy job cuts that will hurt rural families and communities, where maintenance will be the next thing to go after the workers.
“Morrison and Taylor have no plans for dealing with high energy prices and their ongoing energy policy failure is allowing Liberal and National MPs to fill the void with nonsense about deadly and costly nuclear power.
“But as Taylor and Morrison continue to fail on energy policy, maintenance and jobs will continue to be slashed, costs and risks to public safety will continue to skyrocket, and households will pay the price.”
