Disunity over Labor's promised power price hike

23 JULY 2015: Labor leader Bill Shorten’s promise to raise electricity prices has driven a wedge between himself and the unions, with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) issuing a warning against the move. Just days after promising to raise electricity costs with an Emissions Trading Scheme, Bill Shorten now wants to commit Australia to sourcing half its electricity from the inefficient and heavily subsidised renewable generators.Australia sent Labor a clear message about electricity prices and the job-killing carbon tax at the last election. Bill Shorten has shown he learned nothing from the last carbon tax and lurched so far toward the Greens that even the CFMEU is sounding the alarm bells. CFMEU National President, Tony Maher, this week wrote a letter (published on the CFMEU website) to ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver, warning of the futility of making electricity more expensive.“The CFMEU is very concerned that an increased Renewable Energy Target (RET) of 50% by 2030 will increase the cost of electricity for manufacturing and ordinary households while being a poor tool to reduce Australia’s overall global warming emissions,” the letter said.Labor is so far out of touch with everyday families that even the unions couldn’t sit by and watch Bill Shorten self-destruct without acting. The unions are railing against Labor’s position because they understand it will cost jobs and membership, which further illustrates that Labor has long since abandoned the worker in favour of the city-based Greens.Energy Supply Association of Australia Chief Executive, Matthew Warren, was in no doubt about the impact Labor’s plan would have on electricity bills.“Increasing the proportion of higher-cost renewable energy into the market will increase power prices – no ifs, no buts,” he said.The biggest concerns for families in North Queensland were employment, job security, and being able to pay the bills. The high costs of inefficient renewable power generation are already filtering down to household power bills and the last thing families want to see is more unnecessary increases in electricity cost. It’s tough on families and its tough on industry and if industry is forced to pay more, as Labor wants it to, they will be forced to save costs by shedding jobs or risk going out of business altogether. At a time when the Liberal National Government is moving to support jobs and job-creation, the last thing people want to see is Labor promising to put the economy into reverse and people out of work.