Privatisation of South Australia's energy has delivered high electricity prices and poorly maintained infrastructure.
Since ETSA was privatised in 1999 electricity prices have surged while South Australia’s private transmission company Electranet and private distribution company SA Power Networks have made billions of dollars in profit.
Essential services like electricity should not be in private hands and run for profit. The Greens have a plan to reverse privatisation of our electricity system and save the average South Australian hundreds of dollars each year by redistributing private profit back towards cheaper electricity bills.
The Greens are campaigning to:
- revive the Electricity Trust of South Australia as the sole public retailer and network provider for South Australia’s electricity system.
- phase out private electricity retailers over two years.
- bring South Australia’s electricity distribution and transmission network back into public hands and under the control of ETSA.
- establish ETSA as a statutory authority with a board comprised of at least two worker and consumer representatives.
- direct ETSA to run at cost, eliminating profit from the system and cutting the average power bill.
In Parliament I’ve moved a motion calling on the State Government to establish a commission of inquiry to examine bringing back ETSA so that we can put SA’s electricity back in public hands, where it belongs. You can watch my speech introducing the motion here.
