Power supply gaps in NSW are there for all to see

I’m surprised about the article “Coal plant extensions not needed, ESB says” (10/10). This suggests the Energy Security Board is not conversant with the shambles surrounding the imminent closure of one such plant. Liddell in the Hunter Valley is due to close in April next year. However, the gas peaking plant under construction at Kurri Kurri will not be up and running before the end of 2023. This leaves a potentially serious supply gap. No advice has been provided by the ESB or ministers about how Liddell’s lost capacity of 1680MW can be assured until the gas plant starts up. Extending the ageing plant’s operations was recently rejected as an option due to the risk of outages.

The Kurri Kurri gas-fired plant was approved by the NSW Planning Minister in December last year. Funded by the former federal government, the plant was to provide ongoing firming of intermittent renewables as well as strengthening energy security in NSW. Labor dropped its initial opposition on the proviso the plant used 30 per cent green hydrogen from the start and 100 per cent by 2030. From where was the hydrogen to be sourced and stored? What further delays would arise from an application for a hydrogen plant?

Even now the plant’s gas pipeline and storage facility is still awaiting approval, despite its classification as critical state significant infrastructure. Delays and supply gaps will adversely affect the Hunter and its manufacturing base. The Tomago smelter, with a workforce of 1000, needs baseload power to operate 24 hours a day. Brownouts and blackouts are more likely to occur before the Australian Energy Market Operator’s prediction of supply shortages in 2025-26.

Maintaining energy reliability and affordability should not be compromised, as it has been, in the pursuit of emissions reductions. Keeping the lights on is what matters most. Unlike the Liddell saga, an orderly transition would ensure alternative supply is readily available if coal-fired power stations are to close.

Jennie George, Mollymook, NSW

Tax reform key

Dimitri Burshtein presents a very thought-provoking and revolutionary concept of the government actually cutting spending rather than focusing on the promised tax cuts (“We tax more than enough; it’s spending that’s the problem”, 10/10).

So where to cut? The proposal not to proceed with childcare benefits for high-income earners seems reasonable but savings would be only $5bn with a budget deficit north of $60bn. A third of the government’s spending is on welfare and, without affecting genuine recipients, savings could be achieved by cutting down on rorting in the NDIS.

More important than tweaking income tax rates is tax reform. It’s time to increase Australia’s GST rate, one of the lowest in the OECD. A targeted increase directed at carbon, beef, sugar, traffic congestion, luxury vehicles, and water consumption (with rebates for low-income earners) would be easier to sell.

Like some European countries and China, we should start the move to a cashless society. Our shadow economy is estimated at 3 per cent of GDP or a staggering $500bn. Plenty of tax cuts will be affordable for honest taxpayers once we stop tax evasion.

John Kempler, Rose Bay, NSW

Sad for my country

Never once in my 86 years had I thought the future of our country would be anything less than bright and beautiful. But these past few months I have begun to feel anxious, even fearful, and many of Monday’s excellent letter writers sum up my feelings. I had tears in my eyes as I read Jane Bieger’s eloquent letter about people unaccustomed to the concepts of right or wrong; unused to bearing the consequences of poor decisions; the “blurred and distant memories of a once prized liberal democracy”. Oh Jane, what does the future hold for my great-grandchildren?

John George writes that we have some broken bones but are not dead; Ian Dunlop writes of a hope that “will help all of us to face an uncertain future”. I need that hope, a hope that Jane Bieger describes, of “a people who, in fact, need very little government at all”.

Margaret Brabrook, Toowoomba, Qld

Dams the answer

The article “Recycled or desal water in the works” (10/10) raises the subject of water supply for southeast Queensland as the population expands. The problem has, for now, been resolved courtesy of La Nina, but we know drought will return with El Nino. Queensland seems to be heading for more desal plants, at a projected cost of up to $8bn. The Queensland government needs to take a serious look at building more dams rather than pandering to environmentalists who, in the past, routinely tried to block them. Over the past three years dams would have provided water for many years to come, as well as reducing flooding and providing hydro electricity generation.

Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld