Cheaper electricity and lower emissions: so near and yet so far

Blueprints to reform Australia’s woeful electricity system are coming in so fast they blur into each other. And they’re coming because, after such a long debate, we are nearing the moment of decision.

Long, bitter debate: energy minister Josh Frydenberg. 

Thankfully, much of the territory covered in the debate is now common ground between the Coalition and Labor. But key gaps remain, and everyone wants a say in the outcome. A final bipartisan agreement on the structure for Australia’s energy and emissions policies is within reach — but it does require common sense to prevail, especially on the Coalition side. In energy policy, that’s no certainty.

The outcome matters for three reasons. First, in just ten years, electricity and gas prices for Australians have doubled. From being among the cheapest in the Western world, they are now among the most expensive. Electricity prices are the reason battlers are angry about the rising cost of living. And those prices are threatening the existence of our energy-intensive industries, which set up here because we had cheap power and now find it is so expensive it could put them out of business.

Read the story by Tim Colebatch from InsideStory - “Cheaper electricity and lower emissions: so near and yet so far.”