No need for new coal
With the start of a large-scale renewable industry under the Palaszczuk government, North Queensland is getting its own power stations. The $380m Mount Emerald wind farm will generate enough output to power a city the size of Mackay.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There’s also FRV’s 100MW Clare solar farm near Ayr, MSF Sugar’s 24MW bagasse generation plant at its Tableland Mill, Genex’s Kidston 50 MW solar project and Edify’s 58 MW Whitsunday solar project.
They are part of 680MW of privately-funded renewable energy projects delivering $1.5 billion of new investment to Queensland and more than 1200 direct jobs.
Accordingly, no closures are predicted by the independent renewable energy expert panel under two of the three credible pathways identified for our 50 per cent renewable energy target for 2030.
Given the existing and ample supply of electricity generators, the falling cost of renewables and huge taxpayer cost to construct and run a new coal-fired power station – it’s clear that maintaining the state’s existing coal-generation fleet, while adding more renewable energy options to the mix, is the right way to take the state’s regional economy forward.
There is simply no need for new coal-fired baseload generation in north Queensland, as the LNP have suggested.
For three years, when Tim Nicholls was Treasurer, the LNP inflicted 43pc electricity price surges and ignored north Queensland.
Now they advocate unachievable projects because they don't understand the modern energy market of 2017 and Queensland’s existing energy mix.
Jackie Trad,
Acting Energy Minister
Online compliance system is working
Australia is fortunate to have a strong social security safety net to support those who are down on their luck.
However, it is a disappointing reality that some people abuse the welfare system and get payments they are not entitled to. Others may have inadvertently not properly reported to Centrelink and consequently also received an overpayment.
When this occurs, the taxpayers who support the welfare system are ripped off.
The Government is doing everything it can to ensure there is integrity in the welfare system: that people get the welfare payment they are entitled to and no more and no less.
Our main method for doing this is to compare the income that a person self-reported to Centrelink with the income that the Tax Office says they received.
Given that people have typically received thousands of dollars in welfare payments, it is perfectly reasonable they check their records, and explain if there is a discrepancy. If they cannot explain it, then they will receive a debt notice.
Hundreds of millions of dollars has been recouped for the taxpayer over many years through this process. It is a long-standing practice. We are making improvements to the system to make it easier for people to explain a discrepancy and give them more opportunities to do so. We want to make sure that we have valid addresses.
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of media stories about people who say they were unfairly targeted under this system. No one is sent an initial request-for-information letter unless there is a discrepancy that has been identified between the Centrelink self-reported data and the Tax Office data.
We are identifying cases every day where people have failed to declare that they had a job or under-reported their earnings from that job, and are consequently getting thousands of dollars more welfare than they are entitled to, but the Labor Party is calling for us to stop asking these people to explain.
If a person believes that Centrelink got it wrong in their calculations, they can ask for a review and can supply new information in the process. Even after that, they can then appeal to a tribunal.
Alan Tudge, Human Services Minister