Hydro benefits to top $100m

Hobart Mercury
13 July 2011, Page: 5

Hydro Tasmania's carbon tax benefits are likely to be close to $100 million. The news comes as the Greens leader and Tasmanian Senator Bob Brown joined a chorus of calls for the millions of dollars in revenue expected to flow to Hydro Tasmania from the new carbon price will benefit all Tasmanians.

But Premier Lara Giddings yesterday remained tight lipped on just how the company's expected dividends would be spent. Ms Giddings said there was no indication on exactly how much the Hydro expected to gain from the tax, or the mechanisms available to the State Government to "influence where any growth in profit out of the carbon tax is actually spent". "What we do know is that all of us want electricity prices kept down as low as possible for Tasmanians, particularly considering we already use renewable energy here in Tasmania", she said.

A Hydro Tasmania spokesman yesterday said the company was working to determine revenue, which should increase because the company would receive additional revenue from higher National Electricity Market Management Company prices while being virtually exempt from the carbon tax. "We are assessing [Treasury] modelling against our information to get a better indication of the benefit to the business", the spokesman said. "It is expected to be somewhat less than the $200 million figure that has been [suggested]".

Senator Brown said he expected the revenue boost to be a "very big one" but urged that it must flow on to create more wealth for Tasmanians. "If there is tens of millions of dollars coming out of this, and it will be in extra profit line, it should be coming across to make sure that we keep our schools open, that we keep our hospitals well staffed, that we're not short of specialists at the Royal Hobart Hospital [and] that we're able to get all the things that Tasmanians want to see flowing from this outcome", he said.

Senator Brown said Tasmanians would be better off following the introduction of a carbon price from July next year. He said more Tasmanians would benefit from the Federal Government's compensation packages for people earning less than $80,000, with 93% of Tasmanians receiving the subsidies compared to 89% of interstaters. "Tasmania's going to do very well out of this", Senator Brown said in Hobart yesterday.