Failure to Deliver The Plan for our energy future is a plan to fail

Media Release | 30 October 2025
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Hon Dr Steve Thomas MLC
Shadow Minister for Energy; Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations
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Energy Shadow Minister Dr Steve Thomas has slammed the Minister for Energy Amber-
Jade Sanderson for failing to deliver the State’s plan for energy as promised, and for then attempting to cover up that failure and keeping it secret.

Dr Thomas said the state was already years behind the required schedule of works to
deliver its proposed energy transition, which includes a promise to retire all coal-fired
power stations by 2030.

“If WA really wants to get off coal before 2030, the Government needed to have their
Whole of System Plan in place now because it will take years to build the needed
transmission lines and years more to build the windfarms the Government thinks will
power the future,” he said.

“They released the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) Transmission Plan last
month before this important Whole of System Plan – now delayed to 2027 – which
makes no sense.

“It’s like starting to build your house before the plans are completed; the foundations
are likely to be wrong, but you don’t know how bad it is until you try building the roof.”

The State Government had flagged that the Whole of System Plan – the blueprint for the
development of the State’s largest electricity grid, the SWIS – would be released by the
end of this year.

The Whole of System Plan was first delivered in 2020 but due to massive changes
planned for the energy system, it quickly became outdated, resulting in a promise from
the State Government to update it in 2023.

“But that promise was broken when the Cook Government returned to the legislated
timeframe of a five-year review, which meant the plan was due this year,” he said.

“Now that promise has also been broken, with the Minister publishing changes in the
Government Gazette to give herself and her department two more years to deliver this
important planning document.

“The Minister for Energy Amber-Jade Sanderson kept the Synergy billing debacle a
secret and has now tried to keep her energy planning failure a secret.

“It is now not due until the end of September 2027 and won’t be presented much before
then, so we will be well over halfway through the transition of the plan that is supposed
to be delivered.
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“By dithering for so long they have put their own energy transition – including coal
closures and new renewable and gas generation timelines at risk of substantial delay.”

Media contact: Dr Steve Thomas 0427 908 717

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