The release of the annual report of Synergy is yet another dire report for the Cook Labor Government according to the Shadow Minister for Energy Dr Steve Thomas.
“The Government’s mismanagement of energy has been highlighted by a number of reports over of the last year, especially from the Australian Market Energy Operator” Dr Thomas said.
“Today the bad news came from their own generation arm Synergy, which has revealed a $730 million loss for 2022-23.
“This is on top of a $420 million loss the year before, giving a two year total loss of $1.15 billion.
“These results have seen the net value of Synergy drop to less than zero, with total assets of $2 billion and total liabilities of $2.6 billion.
“As a comparison in the Synergy Annual report of the last full year of the former Liberal Government in 2015-16 it made a $32 million profit.
“And when the McGowan Government came to power in 2017 Synergy had a net value of a billion dollars.”
Dr Thomas said that the financial decline of Synergy was yet another warning sign that the Government’s energy management was not adequate, especially its plan for the transition to renewables.
“If I was planning a very expensive and difficult transition to renewables, I wouldn’t start by all but bankrupting the existing generation company” Dr Thomas said.
“It has been a disastrous year for the Government, which had to import 103,000 tonnes of coal to Collie from NSW, which must have added significantly to the loss.
“Even worse, that coal was not needed, and the Government is still trying to use it nine months later.
“Western Australia cannot afford this standard of performance to continue.”
