Taylor power price bravado is ‘hot air’ as pollution set to soar: Bandt
Greens climate and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP says the latest power price claims from the government’s new energy minister, Angus Taylor, are a lot of hot air. Not only will the new Minister’s approach fail to bring down prices, but it will also increase pollution. Mr Bandt said the government’s so-called “big stick” of default prices will apply to less than 20% of consumers and will not even put in place a hard ‘price cap’ for most people.
“Angus Taylor is full of hot air,” Mr Bandt said.
“The government’s power price “big stick” is a complete smokescreen. Only 10-20% of customers will be covered by default prices, and the ‘default’ will be set above the level of most market offers, rendering it meaningless for most customers."
“What’s more, it seems there won’t be any prohibition on market offers going above the default, which means there will be no meaningful ‘price cap’ at all.”
“The Reserve Bank has acknowledged investment in more renewables is what is bringing down prices, yet it is clear Taylor wants to restart Tony Abbott’s anti-renewables crusade with his trash talk on the Renewable Energy Target.”
“Angus Taylor is worse than a climate denier. He acknowledges climate change but then says he’ll take action to make the problem worse.”
“The Greens are also concerned that government is yet to rule out the cuts to rooftop solar proposed by the ACCC. It will be top of the Minister’s list if he thinks he can get away with it.”