Wednesday 30 June 2010

13% electricity rise for Cairns from tomorrow

Household budgets across North Queensland will be under more pressure as a 13.29% electricity price rise comes into effect.

The rise has been sanctioned by the Queensland Competition Authority, approved under the State Labor government

The Federal LNP candidate for Leichhardt, Warren Entsch says this is a reflection of the cost of living under Labor.

“For a family with an average quarterly power bill of $400, this Labor-induced price hike adds a further $53 to their bill. That is grossly unfair, given that it has been the utter incompetency of Labor that has forced these massive increases,” Warren Entsch says.

Entsch suggests that the increases will be even higher if Federal Labor is returned at the next election. He says that Queensland electricity increases would have been 50% higher if the flawed emissions trading scheme went ahead.

“These increases will hit low and middle income households hard. Before the election, Labor promised it would put downward pressure on the cost of living and this is what voters get – increases five times the Consumer Price Index which is currently 2.9%,” Warren Entsch said. "Whether it’s Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard in charge, Labor promises are clearly worth nothing. They said they’d do something about petrol prices and came up with FuelWatch which would have increased prices for most motorists. Then they dropped it.”

“They said they’d do something about food prices and came up with GROCERYchoice which was useless. Then they dropped it," Warren Entsch says. "Now Julia Gillard has confirmed she will be setting a price for carbon which means those huge planned price rises will go even higher. And she’s committed to the mining tax which will, in effect, be another great big tax on everything,” Mr Entsch said.

“This is the reality of life under Labor – broken promises, useless policies, rising prices and massive debt.”

Regardless of who is to blame, this increase on the back of a rate rise by Cairns Regional Council, is going to impact everyone in the unemployment capital of Australia.

16 comments:

Entsch Smentsch said...

I'm surprised Entsch hasn't found a way to blame the rate rise on Gillard .... or has he?

The less electricity people use, the more money the power companies need from us to make up the shortfall.

Can anyone find the speech Entsch made when he left federal parliament, the one where he claimed he could now speak out after eleven years of toeing the party line.

Thaddeus said...

Debt?? Debt?? Sheeesh, Entsch has the gall to speak about debt. Christ almighty, it was him and his Government which hiked the HECS fees beyond the bloody pale...

Darren Michael Howie said...

I just spent time and effort into putting those silly light bulbs in, to save money ! For Nothing !

Tanya Brooks-Cooper said...

:(

Leigh Dall'Osto said...

:P Not Happy!!

Andrew Tunney said...

Now there's value for money...

Charmaine Alford said...

You have any good news Michael??? :-)

Vicki Louise Preston said...

Now there's a surprise....is our Mayor on that Board as well?

Johnston H, White Rock said...

Don't these bloddy wankers get it...... we aint got an endless supply of dosh???

I'm part of a small body corporate in White Rock, and we have kept our levys the same for FIVE years now... and managed / adjusted our expenditure accordingly... becuase we HAD to........

But I guess when you earning between $130K - $320K a year (like the managers at Council - then they don't see what we see

F. Ersilay said...

"another great big tax on everything..." Think I've heard that line before endlessly from your policyless but fearless leader. And you reckon Jim's a sock puppet? Please spare us the next act of donning the dick togs Warren. At your age the budgie may have well and truly flown.

yk said...

There are 2 ways to generate more money either increase your rates or decrease overheads. How much fat is being carried in these energy companies? Does anyone in Government actually care? I doubt it!
Whilst we just accept these charges nothing will ever be done. It's about time we introduced civil unrest on a grand scale to tell these bastards that enough is enough!!!!!!!!!!!

PaulB said...

And Darren, do you know how toxic those crap things are? You need a Hazmat team if one breaks.

Tess L. said...

I agree Paul B. Every fluorescent light has the poisonous and potentially deadly heavy metal mercury in it.There is as yet nothing in place to effectively recycle these lights in Australia. Imagine the mercury concentrations that are building up at waste stations (or wherever the bulbs are smashed in the waste flow) and the landfills.

Cairns Voice of Reason said...

Tess,

Mercury in the bulbs isn't good. Nor was soot from kerosene which was burned indoors before electric lights. And all the dead whales used to procure blubber to fuel lighting in large cities. And the tars you could inhale from open wood fires, before kerosene and whale blubber. And on and on.

Face it, we're doomed.

PaulB said...

OK OK VoR, point made. Only thing though is there's a heckuva lot more people now than there was back then.

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