Parties race to pledge lower power bills as energy contest heats up

Households will be promised a $165 cut to their electricity bills in a new political contest on energy, as Labor and the Coalition race to announce tough new measures on big retailers, including penalties for price gouging.

Both major party's are promising lower power prices.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will reveal plans for simpler bills with “capped” prices under a Labor government, assuring voters he will force the big electricity companies to scrap “standing offers” that push up costs.

The move comes as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also prepares a power price crackdown that will set a price range for default electricity packages and fine the big retailers if they exceed the cap.

Read the story by David Crowe from The Age - “Parties race to pledge lower power bills as energy contest heats up.”

(The conversation about carbon emissions has been hijacked - all Australians, from our politician down, should have one prime concern and that is about how we go about reducing the country’s carbon dioxide emissions, that matter of costs should be secondary consideration, for if we don’t pay now we most certainly will later. Determined to preserve his job, Malcolm Turnbull, along with his coalition cohort, have changed the conversation from one which should have clearly, and responsibly, been about reducing Australia’s carbon emissions, to one that is purely about price.

The Australian electorate is price-sensitive and so the Labor Party and most other politicians, not The Greens, have jumped on board the price band-wagon and are riding it to the abyss - Robert McLean)