Gas prices soar in South Australia

01Sep

The Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) has today revealed that households and small businesses are respectively paying 14 per cent and 12 per cent more for gas during the past 12 months.

“This is another blow to families and businesses struggling to cope with the soaring cost of living in South Australia,” said Shadow Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“Confirmation that gas prices have increased sharply again during the last 12 months comes just days after the Weatherill Labor Government increased the cost of the Emergency Services Levy on a $400,000 home by 163 per cent.

“This latest 14 per cent increase in the price of gas flows into the cost of heating homes, cooking food and showering for hundreds of thousands of South Australian households.

“It is disappointing that the cost of an essential service like gas can increase at three times the rate of inflation, particularly after a decade of galloping increases in the price of gas, electricity and water,” said Mr van Holst Pellekaan.

During the last 12 years of Labor rule in South Australia:

 Water bills have increased by 263 per cent;

 Electricity bills have increased by 140 per cent;

 Gas bills have increased by 136 per cent; and

 State taxes have increased by 106 per cent.

During the same period, CPI has increased by just 41 per cent.

“The continual increases in the cost of utilities for households and businesses is slowing the development of the South Australian economy,” said Mr van Holst Pellekaan.

“Each new cost impost reduces the capacity of the private sector to drag South Australia out of the economic doldrums the Weatherill Labor Government has created.”