‘Simpler ways’: Labor’s public power retailer pitch sparks debate

Queensland Labor has pledged to set up a new public power retailer to help drive down bills across the state if re-elected later this month, but not everyone is sold.

Premier Steven Miles’ promise of a so-called people’s retailer is pitched as saving consumers “up to 6 per cent” by increasing competition in the regions and south-east.

The latter is dominated by companies with an allowed profit margin of 6 per cent under federal regulation, while state-owned Ergon faces its own restrictions on offering better deals.

The proposed retailer would be a new government-owned corporation, expected to cost $1.4 million to set up, and be running within 12 months.Credit: Fairfax Media

“We know more competition equals lower prices,” Miles told journalists of the first part of Labor’s “cheaper energy plan” at a campaign stop in the stronghold of Mackay on Wednesday.

His deputy and Treasurer, Cameron Dick, said: “I think what we’ve seen over time is a lack of success in retail competition across Queensland, particularly in the south-east”.

For his part, LNP leader David Crisafulli described the idea as a “desperate thought bubble” while campaigning in Brisbane and spruiked his coal power station maintenance guarantees pitch.

“Our focus should be on running state-owned power generators, not making sure that we have a second retailer running away with people’s money,” he said.

The LNP would also seek to extend the life of the Callide B coal-fired power station longer than its scheduled closure in 2028.

Energy’s emergence in the campaign comes as Labor minister Mick de Brenni prepares to front the Federal Court on Wednesday as one of dozens of people being quizzed about the failures which led to a 2021 explosion at the separate Callide C station – partly owned by the state.

Labor is acutely aware of the fact that with cost-of-living at the forefront for voters, utility bills are seen as the area with the most state responsibility – already targeted with $1000 rebates.

The retailer would be a new government-owned corporation under the umbrella of Energy Queensland, is expected to cost $1.4 million to set up, and be running within 12 months.

But Grattan Institute energy and climate change program deputy director Alison Reeve questioned whether the approach was not more complicated than existing tools.

If federal restrictions on Ergon offering better deals as the monopoly regional provider were the issue, the state could withdraw from the Australian Energy Regulator like Victoria.

The state energy minister already has the power to set prices – delegated to the Queensland Competition Authority – with the ability to make it easier for people to switch providers, she said.

Day 2 of the campaign: Steven Miles and his wife Kim meet voters at the Caneland Central Shopping Centre in Mackay.Credit: Matt Dennien

A national website, which Queensland contributes to, also exists to help south-east residents move off deals that may be more expensive or at the top-end of what retailers can charge – which is lower than in parts of NSW and South Australia.

“What they’re hoping to do is draw a link in people’s minds that a new retailer will make everything cheaper, when there are actually simpler ways to do that using tools that they already have,” Reeve told Brisbane Times.

“I guess the thing is that that doesn’t have the same electoral appeal.”

University of Queensland economics professor John Quiggin said the apparent purpose “to get the regulator out of the way” could help, and also force further energy competition change.

LNP leader David Crisafulli with Rochelle Cole, head of simulation at Central Queensland University’s school of nursing, midwifery and social sciences, in Rockhampton.Credit: Cameron Atfield

Greens energy spokesman Michael Berkman, whose party has pitched bringing all state energy generation, transmission and retail under a single public authority, partly praised Miles for “unpicking some of the disastrous privatisation of his Labor predecessors”.

Business Chamber Queensland chief executive Heidi Cooper said the pitch was an intervention by government in a space where “business knows best”, and was unlikely to lower prices.

Labor also used the Mackay stop to spruik the multibillion-dollar pumped hydro project west of the city set to underpin the transition from coal power – but since rejected by the LNP.

In its place, Crisafulli has said the LNP would pursue multiple smaller projects. On Wednesday, he said the party believed it could “partner with the private sector” to do so.

Dick called on the LNP to detail what “communities would be disrupted” by up to 70 such sites suggested to be needed to provide the same energy storage at a higher combined price.