Power bills will rise under ALP, fall under Coalition: think tank

Households will pay hundreds of dollars more to keep the lights on under Labor’s more ambitious climate change policy, new modelling has revealed.

• Power prices rise as temperatures soar
• Energy cost caps to save families hundreds

Families will pay hundreds of dollars more in power bills under Labor than they would under the Coalition, new modelling suggests.

A new analysis by Coalition-aligned Menzies and Page Research Centres says Labor’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 would leave NSW households an average of $600 worse off by the time the policy is fully ­implemented.

According to the economic modelling, household power bills would rise between six and 30 per cent by 2030 under Labor. Under the Coalition’s policy, the average household power bill would be up to 40 per cent lower by 2030, it suggests.

MORE FROM ANNIKA SMETHURST

VIOLENT FOREIGN THUGS TO BE BARRED FROM AUSTRALIA

LABOR’S PLAN TO HELP FARMERS FIGHT BANKS

In NSW the average annual power bill in NSW would fall from about $1368 a year in 2017-18 to $804 under the Coalition’s plan to reduce emissions by 26 per cent by 2030.

Under Labor’s more ambitious emissions reduction target, annual household power bills would, ­according to the modelling, be $1404 a year by 2030, representing a 3 per cent jump.

The report said electricity prices for small and medium businesses with an annual consumption of 16,000kWh would generally remain unchanged under Labor, but drop by an Australia-wide average of $1500 a year under the Coalition.

In NSW, small and medium sized businesses would be $2164 a year better off under the government’s more conservative emissions reduction policy.

Three months from polling day, Labor remains in an election-winning position, but the cost of household power bills is a major election battleground after years of soaring prices.

Last week Labor’s energy spokesman Mark Butler refused to guarantee that soaring energy bills would drop under Labor.

Asked twice, Mr Butler said “we guarantee that a policy that introduces investor certainty back into the system will put downward pressure on, particularly, wholesale power prices”.

Menzies Research Centre executive director Nick Cater said the finding debunked Labor’s claim that a wider plan to boost renewable energy would bring down energy costs.

“The inconvenient truth is that there are huge costs to reducing emissions from energy production, and these are paid for by all of us, either as consumers or taxpayers,” he said.

Despite abandoning its National Energy Guarantee (NEG), which would have enforced a 26 per cent emissions reduction target on the electricity sector by 2030, the government maintains Australia is on track to meet its global promise to ­reduce carbon emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

If elected, Labor says it will revive the NEG which the Coalition previously said would cut household bills by $150 a year.

The researchers based their forecast on retail electricity prices from the Australian Energy Market Commission and wholesale power projections from BAEconomics.