The Federal Government has outlined the need for greater investment in the gas and electricity industries and has warned consumers that price hikes are inevitable, Shalailah Medhora reports.
Labor released its draft energy white paper on Tuesday and is pressuring state governments to further deregulate the power industry in order to meet rising consumer demands.
“You're taking about 40 per cent increases over the last three years,” Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said. “And these increases are going to continue.”
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But the Opposition has slammed the white paper and the Government's latest demands, claiming they are “virtually meaningless”.
In a written statement to SBS, the Opposition said the paper had come “too late to have any impact on the Gillard Government's two most destructive policies for the sector – the carbon tax and the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.”
The Greens have also critised the draft.
“It's not a white paper, it's a pollution paper in a country which needs renewable energy and to be setting a world lead,” Greens leader Bob Brown said.
The document does however list growth of clean energy as one of its priorities for the sector, but says green energy will be costly and will require government subsidies to be competitive.
The finalised energy white paper will be released mid 2012.
