While Tasmanian families continue to struggle with skyrocketing power bills in a cost-of-living crisis, high-paid managers at government owned energy organisations are being gifted massive golden handshakes.
Over the 10 years the Tasmanian Liberal Government has been in office, more than $8 million worth of termination payouts have been awarded to key management personnel from Hydro, TasNetworks and Aurora (see attached).
The 2022-23 Aurora annual report released this week revealed that $356,551 in termination payouts were awarded to just two departing executives.
At a time when Tasmanians are doing it tough in a cost-of-living crisis, questions must be asked whether massive termination payouts are the best use of funds.
But after 10 years in office, the Liberals have shown they will do anything they can to prop up their broken budget, turning Hydro Tasmania into a cash cow, rather than to help Tasmanians.
Instead of prioritising payouts to executives and propping up the budget, Labor’s focus in government would be to make sure Tasmanians are paying Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power.
A future Labor Government will also cap power prices at 2.5 per cent a year for all households and small businesses and we will also re-establish the electricity rebate scheme that was in place in 2018.
Dean Winter MP
Shadow Minister for Energy and Renewables
