All the political disputes and posturing about energy plans, electricity supply and sources can tend to overlook the most important factor – the people who constantly struggle to pay power bills.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And while the protagonists sprout on endlessly about one option or the other, back in “reality street” the number of people fighting the real-life battle of trying to pay electricity bills is growing all the time.
They are visiting charity organisations hoping for help in making ends meet.
St Vincent de Paul Society in Dubbo says it handed out 25,767 vouchers to people struggling to pay power bills between July and September 2017, up from 17,817 in the same period in 2016.
Vinnies’ St Brigid’s Conference president Ian Wray has described the call on the state government’s Energy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA) scheme a “crisis” in Dubbo and across NSW.
Salvation Army Captain David Sutcliffe has this to say about the mid-2017 hike in electricity prices: “…. we’re seeing people who are having to make a decision about whether they spend the money on food or electricity or fuel or anything like that and that’s a horrible decision to have to make”.
Other help organisations would have similarly worrying tales to tell about power bills and the inability of many households to pay them.
And, for years, those organisations have been highlighting the fact that it is not only “disadvantaged” families and individuals seeking help … it is also people with jobs.
At the same time the NSW Business Chamber released its business conditions survey, which showed the power price hike had put a “significant dent in profits” for Dubbo and other regional businesses.
Meanwhile, the federal government is pitching its new energy plan.
This is the latest is a series of moves by various governments whose handling of the electricity issue in recent years has been lacklustre.
While the politicking has rolled on people have faced power price rises of 60 per cent in the past 10 years, and 23 per cent since July 1.
Federal and state governments and political parties have to do something to lighten the load for consumers.
No Australian should have to choose between buying food or paying a power bill. Not in Australia in 2017. Not ever.
That is an outrage.
