The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says Victorian households and small businesses are once again set to pay the price for the failures of the Daniel Andrews Labor government.
Mr Walsh says Victoria has been taken from lockdowns to now blackouts as our failed energy system struggles to keep the lights on.
He says the impact of rolling outages will be bad enough in homes but will be crippling for small and medium sized businesses across his electorate of Murray Plains.
“In January three years ago, 200,000 Victorian households had their power cut off during heatwave conditions due to insufficient energy generation,” Mr Walsh explained.
“Yet here we are, three years down the track, and headed for a similar scenario – except this time we get to freeze instead of swelter,” he says.
“Even worse, warnings from the energy market operator of impending blackouts come as Victorian households and small businesses brace for a power bill increase of almost 20 per cent in the next few weeks.”
Mr Walsh says Daniel Andrews’ mismanagement of the energy market will result in classic Labor party economics – we will be paying more for less, higher power bills for less reliable power.
“For years Daniel Andrews has failed to act to shore up Victoria’s energy supplies and Victorians are now left paying the price,” he added.
“Victoria will never recover and rebuild if we can’t even keep the lights on and power bills low – we’re being left behind and left in the dark.”
Mr Walsh says by locking up gas supplies and mismanaging energy production, the Andrews Labor Government has pushed the Victorian power network to crisis point.
“Instead of blaming everyone else, the Andrews Labor Government should take responsibility and act to keep power prices low.”