Labor’s $200m energy promise ‘dreadfully’ unfulfilled​on February 20, 2025 at 10:15 am

The state government has delivered less than a third of the 1,000 self-sufficient power units it promised for cyclone-impacted residents and farmers at the 2021 election.

When seeking re-election four years ago, the then-McGowan government promised $218 million for the ‘standalone power systems’ over five years to deliver cleaner energy and a pipeline of work for local manufacturers.

However, when asked how many of the thousand had been delivered on Thursday at another manufacturing and energy announcement, Energy Minister Reece Whitby said it was “in the teens”.

While numbers provided afterwards showed it was actually 296, it is still far below the target.

“It is a big challenge, we’ve got many remote communities,” Whitby said.

“This is an enormous challenge, these are centres that operate on diesel, [they’re] very expensive, very remote communities. What we’re doing is providing solar with a diesel backup, it’s much more resilient.”

Opposition leader Shane Love slammed the WA Government for what he called a “completely inadequate” solution.

“The planning and rollout for this promise has been dreadful, it’s just another example of a government that can’t deliver on its promises. You can’t make them just because it’s election time and then not follow through,” Love said.

“I’m very aware of the problems with this rollout because many of them were promised for people impacted by Cyclone Seroja.