Carbon Pricing

Mr Fletcher asked the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, in writing, on 5 February 2013:

In respect of the Governments carbon price assistance package insert in utility bills sent from late 2012, (a) which utility companies/billers provided the inserts, (b) in how many bills were inserts provided, (c) what sum did the inserts cost to print, and (d) what sum did the Government pay to have the inserts provided (i) in total, and (ii) per biller.

Mr Combet: The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(a) Nineteen energy retailers distributed the electricity bill insert:

ACTEW AGL;

PowerDirect;

AGL Energy;

Alinta Energy;

Neighbourhood Energy;

Australian Power and Gas;

Click Energy;

Dodo Power and Gas;

Lumo Energy;

Origin Energy;

Integral Energy;

Country Energy;

QEnergy;

Momentum;

Red Energy;

Sanctuary Energy;

Simply Energy;

TRUenergy; and

Energy Australia.

(b) A total of 9,215,000 inserts were provided to participating energy retailers for distibution to their customers based on the number of inserts each requested.

(c) The cost of printing the bill insert distributed by participating energy retailers was $118,030 (excluding GST).

(d) Participating retailers agreed to bear the cost of distributing the bill insert to their customers along with their regular electricity bills or as part of their regular billing processes.