James Griffin
Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change
Shadow Minister for Artificial Intelligence, Digital and Investment
The NSW Labor Government's energy affordability crisis is spiralling out of control, with the Government's own annual reports revealing a shocking 12% year-on-year surge in families needing emergency crisis payments just to pay their power bills.
Shadow Minister for Energy James Griffin said the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water's 2024-2025 annual report[1] exposed a catastrophic worsening of the energy affordability crisis on Labor's watch, with an extra 9,000 families pushed into crisis in just one year.
"In their first full year in government, 75,000 NSW families needed crisis help with their power bills. Just one year later, that number has exploded to 84,000 – a 12% increase," Mr Griffin said.
Mr Griffin said the 12% year-on-year increase represented real NSW families being pushed further into hardship under Labor.
"Every one of those 84,000 crisis payments represents a family in desperate circumstances who are choosing between heating and key items like food. The NSW Government can no longer hide from the fact that their energy transition is failing," he said.
"That's 9,000 more NSW families in desperate crisis this year compared to last. Under Labor, the energy affordability situation isn't improving - it's getting dramatically worse."
Mr Griffin said despite Labor throwing billions of dollars at the problem through various rebates and relief packages, the underlying energy affordability crisis had worsened dramatically.
The annual reports reveal the devastating scale of Labor's energy policy failure across two consecutive years in government:
- 2023-24 (Labor's first full year): 75,000 households in crisis, $30.6 million in emergency support
- 2024-25 (Labor's second year): 84,000+ households in crisis, $33 million in emergency support
"Since Labor came to power, there have been 159,000 instances where NSW families couldn't afford to keep their lights on without emergency government intervention," Mr Griffin said.
"Labor promised affordable, reliable renewable energy. Instead they're delivering soaring bills, looming blackouts and a renewable energy roadmap that's hopelessly failing," Mr Griffin said.
"NSW families deserve an energy policy that delivers affordability and reliability, not one that drives thousands more into crisis every year. This Government has proven beyond doubt it cannot deliver either."