As the state budget looms, agricultural and industrial businesses across Queensland relying on electricity say they are all in trouble if the state government doesn't drop power bills.
The Queensland Electricity Users Network has joined Canegrowers and others across the state in condemning the latest Queensland Competition Authority announcement on electricity prices.
Lower electricity tariffs were announced last Friday for residential and some business customers but in what Canegrowers CEO Dan Galligan described as a cruel blow, existing farming and irrigation tariffs have been left out of any price relief.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk welcomed another fall in regional power prices, saying that from July 1, a typical household would pay $62 a year less, and a small business, $144 less.
Energy Minister Anthony Lynham said the government's positive, consistent energy policy was working for regional Queenslanders.
In contrast, QEUN spokeswoman Jennifer Brownie said irrigators on non-transitional tariffs were facing annual power bills that were 30 to 50 per cent higher.
"Last week's determination by the Queensland Competition Authority said 40pc of customers would be better off on a different tariff," she said.
"That means 60pc would be worse off. And that's irrigators, many of whom are still in drought-declared parts of the state."
The increasing price pressure was seeing more canegrowers, dairy farmers, irrigators and regional industrial businesses shutting down each year, impacting regional economies each time, she said.
The LNP's energy spokesman Michael Hart said that as expected, the determination had artificially lowered tariffs for residential users by subsidisation, but had offered nothing for irrigators, farmers or big industrial users.
"For irrigators, there's no relief in transitional tariffs. They're facing rises of between 50 and 100pc," he said.
A suite of tariffs for agricultural industries needed to be introduced that reflected the vital job they did in providing food, Mr Hart said.
"They can't be priced out of that but that's what the government is encouraging."
The situation users found themselves in meant they were turning instead to diesel generators to continue to irrigate, Mr Hart said.
"How is that good for the environment," he asked.
"The government doesn't appear to have a plan for when transitional tariffs go on July 1 next year. "I'm hearing in regional Queensland that farmers are using less water because they can't afford the cost to pump. That results in less production and money being made."
Canegrowers has called on the government, ahead of the June 11 budget, to take up the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's recommendation to write down the value of Ergon and Energex regulated asset bases.
"Giving back some of the money that should never have been taken in the first place will give some relief to irrigators and also lift the productivity and profitability of businesses across Queensland," Mr Galligan said.
The group has also been urging Energy Queensland to design modern and efficient network tariffs that reflect the reality of providing power to farms as a priority.
"A first step would be to dust off and adopt last year's Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendations," Mr Galligan said. "The ACCC found that over the past decade electricity users in Queensland have paid more than they should have for electricity at the cost of the state's international competitiveness."