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ELECTRICITY, PRIVATISATION
The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Treasurer a question about electricity prices.
Leave granted. The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: Prior to the privatisation of the Victorian electricity industry, the Kennett Government increased the price of domestic electricity by 10 per cent and more than doubled from $16 to $34 the connection fee for domestic users, thus making it more attractive to buyers. Will the Treasurer guarantee that before the privatisation of South Australia's electricity assets there will be no increase in the domestic supply charge, the domestic per kilowatt hour cost or the domestic connection fee? The Hon. A.J. Redford interjecting: The PRESIDENT: Order!The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I am indebted to my colleague the Hon. Mr Redford, who has just indicated that the Government had already announced a significant increase in electricity bills to South Australian consumers, and in percentage terms it might have been almost double the Victorian price increase, because for some consumers—
The Hon. Sandra Kanck interjecting: The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Hold on; we are just telling them that. The increase would have been about 20 per cent for householders—the domestic tariff customers in South Australia. If, as would appear likely, the legislation can pass both Houses of Parliament this week, as the Premier has indicated, the Rann power bill increase, which would be almost double the rate of the Victorian increase to which the honourable member just referred, would not be implemented. That is a cast iron guarantee from the Premier and the Government. If the honourable member is still dissatisfied with that response, I assure her that the Government has no intention of increasing electricity tariffs by 10 per cent, or whatever it is, in the next six months. I presume there will be the standard CPI or CPI-related potential increase in electricity tariffs and, given that the CPI is of the order of 2 per cent or so, it might be of that order. If the import of the honourable member's question is whether this Government will ratchet up electricity prices for long suffering consumers in South Australia by 10 per cent or more, the answer is `No.' Through the actions of the Parliament this week, we might be able to prevent a 15 to 20 per cent increase in power prices for domestic consumers in South Australia.The Hon. A.J. REDFORD: As a supplementary question, is not the difference between the sale that occurred in Victoria some years ago and the sale that is likely to occur now the fact that we are now in a national electricity market, whereas there was no electricity market in those days, and therefore less competition?
The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: That is certainly one of the very significant changes between the timing of the sale in Victoria and the timing of a lease here in South Australia. There have been a number of other issues in addition to the national electricity market, but I can only agree with the view put by the Hon. Mr Redford that there is indeed a significant difference between the timing of the sale in Victoria and the timing of the lease arrangement here in South Australia.