Robbing Peter to Pay Paul- rebate wont work in the long run!

South Coast Greens candidate Amanda Findley has criticised the two old parties for offering the electorate a $250 bribe just before the election in the form of an energy rebate.

“Bribing the electorate with a $250 rebate is robbing Peter to pay Paul and in the long run does nothing to ease household budget pressure” said Amanda.

‘It shows that the two old parties have nothing new to offer people in long term reduction of their costs’

The Greens want to tackle the cause of rising household expenses, not paint over the cracks and working with the people of NSW is a great place to start.

State Labor are forcing up electricity costs through privatisation and costly network upgrades that in some instances can be rendered unnecessary.

People need assistance in reducing the amount of electricity they use and support for efficiency gains.

The capacity of households to make savings is well demonstrated by Sydney's history of water consumption. Over the past twenty years, population has grown by 25% while total consumption has remained almost constant. There is still plenty of room for more savings.

‘Shoalhaven Water hasn’t had to increase the size of some of the water mains because people have changed their water demands making upgrades unnecessary’ said Amanda.

Reducing the amount of electricity used in a household has a direct effect on the wallet and doesn’t mean that a family has to sit in the dark.

“Some regional areas have opportunities to take power generation into their own hands with community wind projects delivering power direct and saving on expensive upgrades to the distribution networks”.

The Greens would reduce the $17.9billion Labor spend on unnecessary upgrades by $7.5billion and share these savings amongst households and business for low interest loans for energy efficient technology.