THE Electrical Trades Union's (ETU) latest scaremongering on the partial lease of the state's electricity grid is as misleading as it is desperate and shows why the public can't trust the unions (Electrical storm: power works concerned, The Irrigator, September 5).
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Anyone with basic business sense knows it is irresponsible to hire new apprentices when you are unsure you can afford to keep them on.
The Australian Energy Regulator - which is responsible for approving how much revenue the network business can recover over a five-year period - is currently reviewing Essential Energy's revenue allowance for 2014-19.
This means that Essential Energy will not have any certainty about how much revenue it can collect from consumers, and therefore how much it can spend over the next five years, until the regulator makes its decision.
Rather than stoking up fears about apprenticeships and rises in energy bills, perhaps the ETU should explain why publicly-owned networks have added $580 to the average household energy bill in just the last five years.
In Victoria, where the electricity grid has been privately run for close to 20 years, network charges are significantly lower.
These exorbitant network costs have hurt our local economy by making our agricultural sector more expensive and less competitive, and by reducing the amount of money being injected into local businesses.
The ETU's claim that the regions will miss out on the proceeds from the lease is also false.
The 49 per cent lease of the state's poles and wires will deliver around $20 billion in new infrastructure, with the government committing at least $6 billion for regional and rural areas. This is despite Essential Energy, the regional network, remaining entirely publicly owned.
Rather than jumping shadows, we should be focussing on how the Riverina can get its fair share of this $6 billion to pay for the road, rail health and community infrastructure that we urgently need across our region.
Ben Foley
Regional manager
Murray-Riverina NSW Business Chamber