Government's renewables push leading to 'outrageous' power bill increases

I don't mean to hammer this but I got to say the polls and the polls aren't really showing this they're not showing it but I am sniffing death in the air the alanes government it suddenly seems on the nose to me and today for instance a two-page spread in the Adelaide Advertiser of businesses saying enough this green energy Revolution is just killing them electricity pric is going through the roof you've got cely International makes air conditions and gas heers power prices it says there in their business up almost 60% Ango family wine makers theirs went up 45% even though they' halfed their grape intake and cut their electricity use and this is in the big wind power State South Australia so how's that working out you know but it's the same story around the country well joining me is dynamic super salesman JP Drake head of the country's biggest independent grocery retailers Drake Drake says big in South Australia big in Queensland JP thank you for your time electricity prices how bad is this problem for your business well the who have we paid the power bill sorry sorry Sor sorry about well I mean the numbers speak for themselves don't they a family business like us a 60% increase in electricity on last year you would say that is outrageous in any business and for us that's a $4 million was literally off the bottom line it's incredible some of it of course consumers then have to pay who do you blame for this well I think this is the whole problem here Andrew people pointing fingers blaming everyone the reality of this all is that the governments need to work together and get on board be on the same page and try and work our way through this and the problem is everyone does Point blame at everyone else yet problem is right now and this problem probably started around 1999 when we got rid of all of them we it all privatized but now we're in this situation you know the rush to be green all of a sudden everyone wants to be so green in such a hurry that they forgot about the people that are actually paying these bills and that's who it's affecting most the punters of Australia is who it's affecting most it's just incredible I mean you know J if you if you were uh promising that Tomatoes would be you know $3 a kilo and you're selling them for 10 uh you'd probably be up before some sort of uh board trying to explain why you weren't a fraud here's the government promising green power will be cheaper power and you've just got a $4 billion whack on your bills I mean how does that work well it is interesting and I think I like to use this analogy people don't really care if Drakes make $4 million less but what does matter is the fact that these headwinds are affecting every single person they're affecting our suppliers they're affecting our Growers and we talk about the headwinds we're seeing every single person in Australia is a is is is getting these headwinds and we are in the same boat so I can assure you unfortunately suppliers are not sending decreases in pricing coming through in fact the more price increases we are seeing and you know we deal with a pretty unfair duopoly in this planet and this in Australia and For Us increasing prices is just not an option so we've chosen as a family business to absorb those prices and try and do what we can to give back because at the end of the day we cannot force our suppliers we can't force our Farmers to decrease their pricing so they have a lesser life of Living and we will not force our Farmers our Growers and our suppliers to do this we just got to be what's right do what's fair that's what we want to do I mean for us it's a 4 million 4 million cost to the bottom line that we'll wear and I know this affects more of the punters of Australia the people of Australia where we've got our politicians that are meant to be doing the best for us yet I'm not exactly seeing that and these electricity prices have got out of control as everyone has mentioned on the show already tonight but of course uh you know that that is $4 million that you don't have then to invest in growing your business you don't have to uh to create more jobs to pay more wages so that hurts the economy uh other companies of course they have to pass on or they do pass on which means you have got people that are not only paying their own higher power prices at home they have to cop it in the prices they pay for almost everything they buy so JP when you actually see the growth figures today so weak so weak and that's in part because you know interest rates trying to knock down inflation I guess you weren't surprised in the slightest well this is no surprises at all to us and we've seen customers changing their shopping habits so they are trying different things so they are trying to get more value in their basket which we're definitely seeing and that does mean buying more specials being more price conscious of the products that are coming up on prom we're seeing an increase in sales promotion in across our business we're seeing customers lean towards you know the the private label the control brands that we have out there we're seeing those grow as well because everyone is trying to get some value for money and we've been fortunate in the supermarket world because unfortunately there's been cafes and restaurants and clubs where people are not eating out as much they're choosing to eat at home and we need to make sure that we are providing the best value that we can because this is affecting every single person in Australia and I they had a little bit of a dig at South Australia the Winden Capital but the reality is this this problem happened a long time ago and we're trying to fix it now we can't keep throwing money out of it and I hate to say it Andrew I think the horse may have bolted on this one and we need some real smart thinking to move forward you didn't hate saying that at all uh JP Drake thank you so much indeed for your time really appreciate it good thank you very much