Rosalie Woodruff on tomorrow to move -
That this House:
1. Acknowledges the Government finds itself in the midst of an energy crisis, facing soaring costs, electricity rationing, and environmental damage because of an ideological resistance to push the building of new wind farms, and sought to put a lid on rooftop solar.
2. Notes the Government’s blind belief that Tasmania’s dams would never fall to critically low levels resulted in it propping up its budget with nearly half a billion dollars in Hydro dividends reaped during the carbon tax years; instead of investing those funds in securing a renewable energy supply for Tasmania.
3. Understands Tasmania usually enjoys some of the lowest wholesale electricity prices in Australia, averaging around $40/MWh, but that these costs doubled due to reliance on imports from Victoria , doubled again following the re-commissioning of gas-fired generation and then nearly doubled a third time following the first diesel generators being switched on, with Tasmanian’s wholesale electricity price now sitting at approximately $300/MWh.
4. Accepts the Energy Minister’s initial response following the damage to the Basslink cable was to deny there was a crisis and to criticise calls for an urgent response to maintain supply, to minimise financial and environmental costs to Tasmania.
5. Understands that the Government gambled on Basslink coming back on line within 60 days as a consequence their initial lack of a credible response.
6. Recognises this negligible response resulted in the Government being caught out again when the cable could not be repaired within the initial expected period.
7. Notes Tasmanians now face footing a bill that could exceed $100 million dollars to hire, install and run 200MW of dirty diesel power generation.
8. Questions why the Government has made no effort to encourage household and smaller business consumers to increase their electricity efficiency.
9. Understands that while the Government is prepared to pay nearly $300/MWh for diesel power, it is not prepared to pay $80/MWh for new renewable wind power and only values the contribution of ordinary Tasmanians in the form of rooftop solar at $60/MWh, one-fifth the price of diesel.
10. The ‘brighter future’ slogan has not provided the Government with the vision or policy substance required to manage the real world challenges of responding to an energy crisis and building an affordable, secure and renewable energy supply for Tasmania.