Regional MPs want the Berejiklian Government to scrap its Climate Change Fund
The NSW Climate Change Fund driving up power bills has divided Coalition supporters with one Nationals MP turning on the government as he calls for the fund to be scrapped.
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A controversial “green tax” used to siphon money from power bills into environmental projects has divided the NSW Coalition Government with regional MPs calling for the “inner city feel good” fund to be scrapped.
The Berejiklian Government has asked the state’s three main electricity distributors and Sydney Water to hand over $276 million for the latest annual levy to the NSW Climate Change Fund, to be spent on a range of initiatives from saving koalas to helping pensioners buy energy efficient appliances.
But Upper Hunter Nationals MP Michael Johnsen has called for it to be abolished.
“Opponents of fossil fuels want the market to determine the cheapest form of energy, well, let’s abolish the Climate Change fund and allow the market to work,” he said.
“This ‘inner city feel good’ cause is a sign of good economic times, at the same time our regions are suffering and made to pay for the concrete and bitumen jungles the doomsayers hide in.”
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The NSW Nationals voted to scrap the Fund at its annual conference in June, but state leader John Barilaro has refused to say if he also wanted to axe it.
Mr Barilaro did not respond to requests for comment yesterday (TUESDAY), but a spokesman previously said the motions carried were “policy positions of the National Party, not NSW Government policy.”
The Fund — of which up to 25 per cent of the cost can be passed on to residential customers — has also drawn criticism from the crossbench with Upper House MP Mark Latham calling it a “giant slush fund”.
Shooter, Fisher and Farmer Party leader Robert Borsak said it was a “waste of money” and hit out at Nationals MPs for not standing up to their Coalition partners.
“The NSW National Party voted to abolish this wasteful agency at their annual conference, but as usual leader John Barilaro is too gutless to stand up to the Liberals and put that vote into action,” he said.
Mr Borsak said it was “outrageous” NSW households were being slugged with higher electricity bills to fund the “virtue signalling exercise”.
“This fund will inflict more pain on families struggling with the cost of living while having zero impact on the earth’s climate,” he said.
Chatswood mother of two Helen Peterson said their power bill had tripled in the past 10 years.
Her family of four had to pay $963.19 for their latest bill for the June quarter.
She said she was concerned about carbon emissions and global warming but would like to see some real change.
“This (climate fund) levy would be great if it was actually useful.
“More governance on how it was spent is needed so we could see some actual change because power prices continue to go up.”
Originally published as Regional MPs want the Berejiklian Government to scrap its Climate Change Fund
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