Weatherill needs to come clean on Alinta offer

17Mar

The State Liberals are demanding Jay Weatherill release details of the offer Alinta put to him to keep the Northern Power Station operating.

“South Australians have the right to know what it would have cost to keep the Northern Power Station operating,” said Shadow Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

When questioned today about releasing the detail of Alinta’s offer to keep the Northern Power Station open Jay Weatherill told a Property Council forum that: (Alinta) were never offering to do that.

“Premier Weatherill needs to back his statement with some evidence,” said Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“I am reliably informed that the support requested by Alinta was less than 10% of the $550M bill the Weatherill Government now wants taxpayers to cover to fix the state’s energy crisis and would have avoided an enormous amount of pain for households and employers.

“If there was no offer then why is a confidentiality gag in place and why is the Weatherill Government fighting 12 Freedom of Information applications?

“It is common knowledge that Alinta put an offer to the Weatherill Government and that the offer was spurned.

“The people of South Australia have the right to know exactly how much that offer was and why it was rejected.

“SA’s energy crisis is of the State Government’s making, could have been corrected over two years ago and will now cost tax payers more than ten times as much under the State Government’s new $550M plan.

“Since Jay Weatherill forced the Northern Power Station to close down South Australians have suffered blackouts, price hikes and now tax rises to pay for that foolish decision.

“Having announced $550 million in taxpayers’ money to rectify his mistake of closing down the Northern Power Station Jay Weatherill has run out of excuses for hiding the details of Alinta’s offer.”