TAS residents and employers alarmed over “energy crisis”
Some Tasmanians got a scare this week when they mistook a political ad from the Labor party for a power bill. But Tasmania's biggest employers say Tasmanians should be alarmed that a lack of extra power is holding back their attempts to add jobs and reduce carbon emissions, while their preferred solution, Marinus Link, faces an uncertain future due to cost blow-outs.
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00:00 Tasmanians are rarely glad to find power bills in their letterboxes.
00:07 When this Labor Party ad was delivered, some mistook it for the real thing.
00:11 What the Premier needs to understand is that Tasmanians are terrified of their actual power bills under his government.
00:17 Not about advertising from the Labor Party.
00:20 But while households fear big power bills, some of Tasmania's biggest employers say they can't get the power they need at any price.
00:28 We are in an energy crisis now. It's important Tasmanians know that.
00:32 We do not have enough energy in Tasmania for our needs.
00:35 One is Norske Skug, which runs the Boyer paper mill.
00:39 It wants to start using electricity instead of coal for its boilers, but says it's been told hydro doesn't have spare capacity.
00:47 The government and big businesses say Tasmania needs new renewable energy generators,
00:52 but they won't get built unless Tasmania gets two new power cables to the mainland.
00:58 We need Mariners for a range of reasons, not just to import energy when we need it,
01:02 but also to give surety to developers to build energy projects on island.
01:06 The predicted cost of building Mariner's Link has blown out,
01:09 from an estimated $3.8 billion to what's understood to be closer to $5.5 billion.
01:15 The Tasmanian government wants the Commonwealth to take on a greater share of the cost,
01:20 and has left the door open to abandoning the project,
01:23 meaning Tasmania's power uncertainty is likely to remain for some time.
01:27 time.
01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]