Premier urges price comparisons on energy bills
With the carbon tax in force and electricity prices reaching sky high records, Queensland premier Campbell Newman has urged Queenslanders to shop around for the best deal.
Mr Newman said he had changed his own energy provider after comparing costs.
Mr Newman said he was surprised when his power bill from Origin Energy showed a tariff 11 increase of 13.7 percent and a tariff 33 (off-peak) increase of more than 50 percent.
“These are completely unjustifiable increases and the government is taking a range of actions to demonstrate that we are not going to sit by while Queensland families are hit hard by this,” he said.
Mr Newman said the increases prompted him to shop around.
“Lisa and I have been doing a bit of work over the last eight or nine days. We have found that we can get a better deal,” he said.
“We have gone to a new electricity provider, we have left Origin behind. We will be saving at least $130 per quarter —$520 per annum at least. That is $520 worth of savings by switching providers,” Mr Newman said.
Asked in an interjection by Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk where he had taken his business, me Newman said: “I am not going to mention that because that is inappropriate.”
After further interjections he said: “If the leader of the Opposition wants to see me outside the chamber I will whisper in her ear quietly the name.”
Mr Newman said Queensland families were struggling to make ends meet in the wake of the federal government’s carbon tax and his government had done its part to help Queensland families.
“We have frozen the regulated tariff, tariff 11, for standard residential electricity contracts. That
means the only increase to people’s electricity bills should be from the federal Labor carbon tax.
However, what has been going on, sadly, is that some companies have been increasing their prices well above what could be justified by that carbon tax,” he said.