The Tasmanian Industry Summit has thrown its support behind Labor's energy policies in an Official Communique.
On energy, the summit agreed that "dramatic increases in energy pricing were a major challenge for all businesses in Tasmania", calling on the State Government to "take actions to minimise the impacts."
"This Tasmanian Industry Summit calls on the Tasmanian Government to further support Tasmanian businesses and households as they deal with energy price rises, this could include a temporary price cap being placed on electricity or further rebates from state owned generators," the Official Communique read.
"It was further noted that de-coupling the State from the Victorian energy price as a base for Tasmanian users should be investigated. While maintaining access to the national energy market is critical, Tasmanian's setting the price for Tasmanian users was seen as critical as the nation transitions to renewables."
This position from Tasmania's key industry groups confirms exactly what Labor has been saying - that Tasmanians deserve to pay Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power, and not continue to be ripped off by the Liberals power tax.
Tasmanian Labor has a policy of capping power price increases at 2.5 per cent. Labor's policy would stop these unfair increases and save households around $500 a year and businesses thousands.
We also have a policy of applying a power rebate for larger contracted customers, who've seen their prices double and in some cases triple over the last nine months.
Our previous generations worked hard to build the Hydro and give Tasmania the abundance of renewable energy we have now. Our current generation deserves to see some of the fruits of their labour.
But instead of Tasmanian-made energy being used to benefit local businesses and households, profits from the Hydro are going to Government coffers so they can pay for vanity projects like a billion-dollar stadium.
The voices in the community have now become too loud for the Government to ignore - Tasmanians want to pay Tasmanian prices for Tasmanian power.
Dean Winter MP
Shadow Minister for Energy & Emissions Reduction
