Page 5535 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 November 2010
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MS GALLAGHER: All up-to-date information around revenue to government will be provided in the budget update in February this year.
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, a supplementary question?
MRS DUNNE: Yes, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, will you use any increased dividends to provide financial relief to ACT ratepayers who are facing a 75 per cent increase in rates since the Labor Party came to power in 2001?
MS GALLAGHER: They are decisions that budget cabinet will need to take. I should say that since the relaxing of water restrictions it has been raining constantly and, from my reading of all the signs up around the place, consumption is very low.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS GALLAGHER: Well, there is not a windfall of cash coming through with water is what I am saying.
MR SMYTH: A supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Treasurer, will you, as a shareholder in Actew, ask that water prices be reduced to ensure that Actew does not gouge homeowners this year?
MS GALLAGHER: No.
Electricity—cost
MR COE: My question is to the Minister for Energy and it relates to the increasing cost of electricity in the ACT. Minister, you stated earlier today that electricity bills, on average, are $1,522 per year in the ACT. Can you confirm for the Assembly that the entire solar feed-in tariff scheme will add $225 to household electricity bills, which equates to approximately a 15 per cent increase?
MR CORBELL: The $225 figure relates to the potential full expansion of the scheme to 240 megawatts in 10 years time. The government has agreed at this stage to the existing 30 megawatts allocated to micro and now medium generator categories and it has agreed to only 40 megawatts of the large generator categories. In total, those two elements, the only elements the government has agreed to deploy at this time, will amount to no more than $4 per week per household once deployed.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe?
MR COE: Minister, how will you be communicating to Canberrans that the increase will be no more than $4 per year and that there will be a 15 per cent increase in the cost on average?
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