Angus Taylor’s proposed “CoalKeeper” tax on electricity bills could significantly outstrip the impact of the Gillard government’s carbon price, forcing up household electricity prices by at least 14%.
The tax, which would pay to subsidise the Coalition’s fossil fuel donors to keep uncommercial coal and gas-fired power plants operating even if the electricity they produce is unused, has been estimated by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis to cost between $2.9-6.9 billion. That would mean an increase in ordinary household electricity bills of between $182-430 a year.
An additional $182 a year would mean a 13.6% increase in electricity bills in south-east Queensland, based on bill data from the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC). It would mean a 14% rise in NSW; 9.3% in the ACT, 16% in Victoria, 9.7% in South Australia and 9.4% in Tasmania. An increase of $400 a year would mean bill increases of more than double those figures. The AEMC has forecast bill reductions in south-east Queensland, Victoria and South Australia this year, suggesting the increases would be proportionately even bigger.
The rises would occur at a time when workers face years of wage stagnation, but no growth in real wages forecast for years to come.
Gillard’s carbon price is estimated to have increased power bills by 10% for the average Australian household, and 15% for business users, leading to a 3-5% reduction in annual carbon emissions in the first two years of the scheme.
Contrarily, the government’s CoalKeeper proposal would impose much higher costs in order for fossil fuel generators that would otherwise shut down to continue operating, driving up emissions beyond what would apply under business-as-usual conditions in which renewables, aided by battery storage and other forms of non-fossil fuel dispatchable power, would replace them.
Meantime the NSW government, in which Environment Minister Matt Kean is leading a push to increase investment in renewables and the jobs in regional areas it brings, has received a massive response to its call for expressions of interest for investment in its New England renewable energy zone.
As Reneweconomy reported, NSW Nationals MPs welcome the hundreds of ongoing jobs the investment would bring — ironically right in the heart of climate denialist Barnaby Joyce’s federal electorate. The cost of CoalKeeper would not merely be to households but to employment and investment in regional areas.
I remember Shouty Scomo Morrison running around Parliament with a lump of coal, shouting to everyone ‘Don’t be afraid’ . With a 14% rise in electricity prices, thanks to ‘Coalkeepet’ we now have good reason to be afraid.
Surely you mean Shouty Scovid?
Is Angus Taylor just corrupt, or his he, in fact, insane?
Insanely corrupt I suggest
Just more ammo to use against the LNP come election time.
I don’t know how they think this one is going to be a vote winner, everyone pays power bills, even the fiscal hard noses who need a cost benefit analysis to decide on whether keeping the planet habitable is a good economic decision or not.
“$430 more, and I’m not getting anything for it? Damned if I’m paying that!” they’ll say, (if it ever gets reported widely, of course)
Is there a skerrick of evidence that Labor wants to win the next election?
On social media I see a lot of Labor stuff. Getting coverage on main stream media is a harder task for them. Morrison is doing a very good job of demolishing his own brand, so that is a fillip.
Can’t imagine why – as Opposition MPs the vat majority of them are being better paid than they could dream of in the real world, little work and zero responsibility with just only a gold plated pension, free air travel (HA!) and other perks to look forward to if the corporate sinecures and consultancies don’t work out.
Ah the resident Labor basher with no alternative offered, don’t be shy, tell us the party you think will do better.
Another Labor basher with no alternative provided to inform us poor ignorants who remember Labor’s carbon price.
I borrowed a neighbour’s Weekend Australian to see if there had been any reporting or discussion of Taylor’s proposal. I found nothing & now wonder if there has been any mention of it elsewhere in the Murdoch media.
Probably deliberately trying to keep it quiet.
Maybe this is just their way of encouraging everyone who can afford it to get solar?
Everyone who can’t afford it are clearly not their market.
Just getting solar may not be enough. If someone instals solar but remains on the grid they still pay the supply charge anyway. Depending on how their tariffs are arranged they also might still be obliged to buy all the energy they use and sell all the energy their panels produce, with the export price massively discounted compared to the supply price so that even if the solar system produces a considerable surplus of energy the it does not cover the cost of the supplied electricity. (That’s how it works where I am.)
So if someone wants to dodge Taylor’s great Australian multi-billion robbery they need not only to instal solar but also a battery and then go off-grid. That’s still a serious investment these days that probably will not pay for itself in most cases, and if the system stops working for any reason you either have to cope with no power while you wait for it to be fixed or else get hold of a back-up generator.
CoalKeeper could push battery storage to viability for more people.
Yes, it must make the numbers that much more favourable. Whether it gets over the line is harder to say. And I would expect that for some people the decision involves more than just the plain financial calculation. There has to be some value in telling Angus Taylor to go and boil his head while sticking his CoalKeeper where the sun does not shine.
With solar my energy bill was slashed from around $1200/qrtr to $250-300/qrtr. Just waiting for battery prices to drop, also waiting on cheaper EVs. Won’t be long.
Oh, and wasn’t it Labor who brought in so many of these renewable legislation and trends? Yet here you and Sulki are having a hate fest over Labor, while not letting us know for whom we should be voting!
See if you can find any links to Labor and your decreased energy bill
Achievements of the Rudd-Gillard Government
· NBN (the real one) – total cost $37.4b (Government contribution: $30.4b)
· BER 7,920 schools: 10,475 projects. (completed at less than 3% dissatisfaction rate)
· Gonski – Education funding reform
· NDIS/DisabilityCare
· MRRT & aligned PRRT
· Won seat at the UN
· Signed Kyoto
· Signatory to Bali Process & Regional Framework
· Eradicated WorkChoices
· Established Fair Work Australia
· Established Carbon Pricing/ETS (7% reduction in emissions since July last year)
· Established National Network of Reserves and Parks
· Created world’s largest Marine Park Network
· Introduced Reef Rescue Program
· National Apology
· Sorry to the Stolen Generation
· Increased Superannuation from 9 to 12%
· Changed 85 laws to remove discrimination against same sex couples
· Introduced National Plan to reduce violence against women and children
· Improvements to Sex Discrimination Act
· Introduced Plain packaging
· Legislated Equal pay (social & community workers up to 45% pay increases)
· Legislated Australia’s first Paid parental leave scheme
· Established $10b Renewable energy fund
· Legislated Murray/Darling Basin plan (the first in a hundred years of trying.)
· Increased Education funding by 50%
· Established direct electoral enrollment
· Created 190,000 more University places
· Achieved 1:1 ratio, computers for year 9-12 students
· Established My School
· Established National Curriculum
· Established NAPLAN
· Increased Health funding by 50%
· Legislated Aged care package
· Legislated Mental health package
· Legislated Dental Care package
· Created 90 Headspace sites
· Created Medicare Locals Program
Created Aussie Jobs package
· Created Kick-Start Initiative (apprentices)
· Funded New Car plan (industry support)
· Created Infrastructure Australia
· Established Nation Building Program (350 major projects)
· Doubled Federal Roads budget ($36b) (7,000kms of roads)
· Rebuilding 1/3 of interstate rail freight network
· Committed more to urban passenger rail than any government since Federation
· Developed National Ports Strategy
· Developed National Land Freight Strategy
· Created the nations first ever Aviation White Paper
· Revitalized Australian Shipping
· Reduced transport regulators from 23 to 3 (saving $30b over 20years)
· Introduced NICS – infrastructure schedule
· Australia has moved from 20th in 2007 to 2nd on OECD infrastructure ranking
· Awarded International Infrastructure Minister of the Year (2012 Albanese)
· Awarded International Treasurer of the Year (2011 Swan)
· Introduced Anti-dumping and countervailing system reforms
· Legislated Household Assistance Package
· Introduced School Kids Bonus
· Increased Childcare rebate (to 50%)
· Allocated $6b to Social Housing (20,000 homes)
· Provided $5b to Support for Homelessness
· Established National Rental Affordability Scheme ($4.5b)
· Introduced Closing the Gap
· Supports Act of Recognition for constitutional change
· Provided the highest pension increase in 100 years
· Created 900,000 new jobs
· Established National Jobs Board
· Allocated $9b for skills and training over 5 years
· Established Enterprise Connect (small business)
· Appointed Australia’s first Small Business Commissioner
· Introduced immediate write-off of assets costing less than $6,500 for Sm/Bus
· Introduced $5,000 immediate write-off for Small Business vehicles over $6,500
Introduced Small business $1m loss carryback for tax rebate from previous year
· Legislated Australian Consumer law
· Introduced a national levy to assist Queensland with reconstruction
· Standardized national definition of flood for Insurance purposes.
· Created Tourism 2020
· Completed Australia’s first feasibility study on high speed rail
· Established ESCAS (traceability and accountability in live animal exports)
· Established Royal Commission into Institutional Sexual Abuse
· Established National Crime Prevention Fund
· Lowered personal income taxes (Ave family now pays $3,500 less p.a. than 2007)
· Raised the tax-free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200
· Australia now the richest per capita nation on earth
· First time ever Australia has three triple A credit ratings from all three credit agencies
· Low inflation
· Lowest interest rates in 60 years (Ave mortgagee paying $5,000 less p.a. than 2007)
· Low unemployment
· Lowest debt to GDP in OECD
· Australian dollar is now fifth most traded in the world and IMF Reserve Currency
· One of the world’s best performing economies during and since the GFC
· Australia now highest ranked for low Sovereign Risk
· Overseen the largest fiscal tightening in nations history (4.4%)
· 21 years of continuous economic growth (trend running at around 3%pa)
· 11 years of continuous wages growth exceeding CPI
· Increasing Productivity
· Increasing Consumer Confidence
· Record foreign investment
· Historic levels of Chinese/Australian bilateral relations
· First female Prime Minister
· First female Governor General
· First female Attorney General
Improved social equality and has a larger voice on the world stage.
All this (and more) despite a hung parliament, a recalcitrant press and the most negative and asinine Opposition since Federation.
And all the Libs have to give will be a worldwide bad name, a potato head a lump of coal, and Sco Mo the Teflon PM
Lovely list Allen, yet after decades of labor and libs. Little or no dental care (I just spent over $10K on essential work), bugger all social housing, bugger all affordable housing, bugger all movement on deaths in custody, bugger all action on climate change, bugger all wages growth (except for politicians and their wealthy mates), a useless war in Afghanistan, just to name a few things that actually matter. Having voted Labor most of my life, I would love to be able to support them again, but for that to happen they need to step up and actually DO SOMETHING.
Low unemployment, you’re kidding right?
And, I don’t know if it was covered under another name, the subsidising the installation of “Pink Batts” has given the occupants a greater degree of comfort and reduced their Winter power bills. Furthermore these Batts will be silently doing their good work for decades or until those houses are demolished. That’s Community politics at its best.
Surprise surprise energy retailers are price gougers many owned by foreign companies. They are aided and abetted by friends in high places.The minute consumers try to desert in numbers you will have a service charge even if you go of line. The only way to break the current deal is for all domestic solar panel owners to form a group and use the power of numbers to compete on the short term market with the other generators At the moment domestic solar generators are being robbed with the pathetic feed-in rates .1 o r2 hours off line at peak would soon have the retailers start to discuss realistic feed in rates
That’s an excellent idea and entirely practicable in smaller regions with high uptake.
If it becomes a movement those gold plated (at taxpayer expense) poles & wires privatised by & for shonks, will become text book stranded assets.
Bring it ON!
If one goes Off-line, refuse to pay the “service charges” and take it to Court. Then represent yourself. I’m no lawyer but I think that a private company levying a fee for something they don’t nor cannot provide would receive short shrift in any Court. Also the huge number self-representing would clog the Courts for decades. 😉