PRIME MINISTER: Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I am here with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the Minister for Energy.
Now, your companies provide a vital and essential service to around 8 million Australian households and businesses.
Australians are paying, right now, too much for energy.
There are millions of Australian households that are on plans that are the wrong plans. We know from the ACCC research and so many other works of research that we’ve had. We know that people are being left on standing offers that are too high for what they can afford.
So we’ve got to get today a better deal for Australian families. We want you to work with us to deliver a better deal for Australian families.
We are blessed with abundant sources of energy, many of you are generators as well and you understand that but the fact is that they’re paying higher prices than ever before and too many Australian families are under real financial stress as a result.
We need a better deal. We know that, for example, the gap between the best and worst offers that a household can have can range from $900 to $1,500 a year depending on the household. And even within a particular company, with an individual company of yours, the gap can be between the best and the standard offer up to $400 a year.
So the fact is millions of Australian families are paying too much for their electricity.
Now what we want to do is see that you work with us to protect your customers to make sure that they know what is the best deal for them, how they can ensure that they are paying no more for electricity than they need to.
We believe that is in your interest, it’s in the public’s interest, it’s in the nation’s interest.
We must ensure that Australian’s are paying no more for electricity and energy than they should, than they need to. We need your help to deliver that.
After all your customers, the consumers that you serve, they are the foundation of your business. We want to work with you to care for them.
So let’s work now, come up with some outcomes and we can say that we going to protect, you are going to protect the customers you have to ensure that they get the best deal and pay no more for electricity and energy than they need to.
So thank you very much for being here, and we look forward to a good and frank discussion.