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The 2019-20 Queensland Budget will continue to deliver on the energy trifecta of affordability, reliability and a smooth transition to 50 per cent renewables by 2030.

Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said that because Queenslanders own their power assets, the state could put money back into the pockets of power users.

“We are investing $2 billion to deliver our Affordable Energy Plan which is why Queenslanders are paying the lowest average electricity prices of any mainland state in the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Electricity Market,” Dr Lynham said.

“The Affordable Energy Plan is about helping Queensland families reduce their energy costs and under this plan we will continue to limit power rises for households and small businesses to inflation over the next year.

“The Palaszczuk Government will continue to make electricity more affordable in the regions by investing more than $500 million in 2019-20 to ensure families in regional communities across Queensland from Cooktown to Gladstone and Roma pay a similar amount for their electricity to those in the south east of the state.”

The 2019-20 Budget will include:

• $192.3million for the $341 electricity rebate for eligible seniors, pensioners, veterans and low-income families, including Commonwealth Health Care Card holders and asylum seekers;
• $247.6 million to continue to remove the cost of the Solar Bonus Scheme from electricity bills for 2019-20
• $2.7m for rebates of up to $3500 under the Solar for Rentals trial in Bundaberg, Gladstone and Townsville;
• $1.4m to assist targeted regional families in hardship to manage their energy costs through improved energy literacy, taking simple energy efficiency actions and switching to monthly billing;
• $14.8m million for the regional Business Energy Savers Program to help farmers realise energy savings through energy audits and transition support to appropriate, new tariffs and
• $4.8m for the solar and battery storage interest free loans program.

Dr Lynham said the 2019-20 Budget would invest more than $2.2 billion to ensure Queenslanders continued to enjoy some of highest electricity reliability standards in the world.

“More than $1.6 billion is being invested in our poles and wires across Queensland with Powerlink and Energy Queensland supporting more than 5200 jobs,” Dr Lynham said

“We are investing more than $613 million in our power generators CS Energy and Stanwell supporting more than 1200 jobs.

“This investment in our power assets will help support our smooth transition to 50 per cent renewables by 2030 as more and more renewable generation projects come online.

“To ensure our transition to cleaner energy future progresses smoothly we are investing $1.16 billion in the Powering Queensland Plan.

“The Powering Queensland Plan is supporting long-term structural reform to the energy market, which includes establishing CleanCo, the Palaszczuk Government’s new publicly-owned clean energy generator.

“CleanCo will up the ante and increase competition in the wholesale electricity market, as we know more competition will help lower electricity prices and encourage a reliable and affordable transition to renewables.”