That's it for today, thanks for reading
Here are the main stories on 3 June:
- The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the anti-corruption commission will “have the scope to look at what they see fit” to investigate;
- Albanese also says stopping new gas projects ‘doesn’t reflect the needs’ of economy as his deputy Richard Marles blames the Coalition’s ‘nine years of energy policy failure’ for price rises;
- A third case of monkeypox detected in NSW, and a second in Victoria;
- The Labor government makes a submission to raise the wages of the lowest paid workers;
- The outgoing Icac chief criticises pork barrelling; and
- At least 50 deaths recorded across Australia of people with Covid.
We will see you all back here for another fill of news tomorrow!
Energy prices surge in Queensland
This story from AAP:
Queensland household and businesses electricity bills are set to surge again unless the state government intervenes in the market to cut wholesale prices, the opposition says.
Household and business electricity bills will surge at least 9% across Queensland, with firms in the southeast set to cop a 19.8% rise in 2022-23.
Retail bills will leap after wholesale electricity prices quadrupled to $171 per megawatt hour in the year to March, on the back of increased demand and generators setting higher prices amid soaring coal and gas costs.
The Queensland government will give households a one-off rebate of $175, but electricity prices are unlikely to fall until 2024, according to the Australian Energy Regulator.
Liberal National party energy spokesman Pat Weir says the government could intervene in the market to direct state-owned coal-fired generators to lower wholesale prices, as it did back in 2017.
He says the $175 rebate won’t be enough to shield many households, and there’s no relief for small and medium-sized businesses.
“The best thing the government can do at this present time is drive down the electricity prices,” Weir told reporters.
Analysts have told AAP the AER will likely have to allow Queensland retailers to lift household and business bills again before the end of 2022-23.
Weir said the AER ruling may come as soon as next month, which could cause the closure of smaller energy retailers and leave consumers at the mercy of bigger players.
“So the consumer pays,” he said.
The wholesale market in Queensland is dominated by government-owned coal-fired power generators Stanwell Corporation and CS Energy.
There’s also a limit on how much cheaper electricity can be imported through the Queensland-NSW Interconnector.
A spokesperson for energy minister Mick de Brenni said $575m dividends have been paid to Queenslanders from its two generators since 2017.
However, Stanwell and C S Energy have reported $2.76bn in profits and paid government dividends of $729.6m over the last five years.
“Publicly owned generators bid to cover generation costs,” de Brenni’s office told AAP in a statement.
“Any revenues above costs are given back to Queenslanders through Asset Ownership Dividends.”
Weir said state-owned generators could be directed to lower wholesale prices because many have their own coal mines. They aren’t exposed to higher international prices unlike smaller private generators.
“I do not accept that they are completely at the hands of the spot market,” he said.
“They’re not running around the state buying coal willy nilly at mines around this state.”
Updated
