Alcoa

Shadow Minister for Energy and Renewables, David Southwick

The Liberal Nationals are delighted that thousands of Victorian jobs have been saved and acknowledge the great work of the local Members of Parliament, Roma Britnell and Dan Tehan, who fought hard to keep Alcoa open.
But this has also been another sorry lesson in Labor economics where they introduce a new tax but then spend more money trying to undo the damage of their new tax.
Daniel Andrews effectively closed the Hazelwood power station by putting a $252 million tax on it but has now spent over $500 million of taxpayers’ money to undo some of the damage of his decision.
Only Labor would think it’s a smart idea to spend over $500 million from a tax that raises $252 million.
Labor’s ideological decision to force the closure of Hazelwood through the tripling of the tax on coal and a reckless go-it-alone 40% Victorian renewable energy target is pushing up power prices and hurting energy-intensive Victorian businesses like the Portland Smelter.
While the Coalition welcomes an announcement that the Portland Smelter will continue to operate, every other Victorian household and business will continue to see their power bills soar by over 10% because of Labor’s reckless policies.

Media contact: James Duncan    0457 758 018     james.duncan@opposition.vic.gov.au