The government’s plans for growing agriculture in Queensland are on the path to failure if the proposed 10.3 per cent electricity price hikes are not reeled in according to sugarcane grower body, Canegrowers.
The sizable hike has sent shockwaves through regional Queensland after it was released in the Queensland Competition Authority’s (QCA’s) draft determination on 2016-17 regional regulated electricity prices.
“The proposed hikes show the electricity pricing system is broken. Prices are out of control,” Canegrowers CEO Dan Galligan said.
Mr Galligan said what makes the situation even more dire is that the hikes, which will impact on rural householders, businesses and farmers across rural Queensland, come on the back of a series of increases amounting to a 96pc cumulative increase over the last seven years. Amongst the worst hit will be Queensland’s irrigated farmers.
“The spiralling cost of electricity to run pumps to irrigate cane land is becoming an untenable outlay and many of our growers are being forced to make the decision to switch the pumps off and loose vital productivity and profitability. It’s unacceptable, especially given it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said.
“There seems to be so much focus on profit taking by state-owned electricity network operators, and no one appears to be listening to the concerns of users who will have only one option - to stop using electricity all together and seek alternative sources of energy. This will only increase the costs further for those left on the grid.
“This is a complex issue but we are sick of the buck passing. On behalf of our members we have been making a submission into various reviews almost every month now for the past three years, and still our solutions are ignored.”
