Rising electricity
prices over recent years, especially, but not only in Victoria, have been a
disgrace. There has been absolutely no justification for this rip off of
Australian citizens. Sadly, gover4nments are allowing this.
Electricity companies
have been doing nicely out of this. A number of foreign based companies
operating behind the scenes have been doing better still. For example, SP,
Ausnet has sent its parent Singapore Power $90 million in assorted fees and
related party payments this year alone. Spark Infrastructure has handed over
its own parent company, Hong Kong based CKI $54.5 million in the same period,
in the form of management fees.
Consider this in the
context where according to the record, 40 percent of the reason for electricity
price rises has been investment in transmission and distribution. The problem
here is that this investment is occurring in conditions where governments have
guaranteed a certain return on investment. That is, the companies take their
cut regardless of the quality of their performance, by imposing this on
consumers. Thus rising charges are not connected so much with costs as they are
with the guaranteed return. Coalition
and Labor governments have been responsible for setting up this system.
This is the essence
of revelations of a recent Age business Day survey.
Incentive has been
given to the electricity companies to take advantage of the system by using
some clever accounting, imposing a series of questionable management fees
(essentially charging themselves and passing this off as costs), to boost
inefficiency (this is more profitable). This is especially telling when there
is god evidence to suggest that the system remains short of being at the
standard that it should be and arguably has been a con tributing factor to
recent devastating bushfires.
Disclosed documents
reveal that Singapore Power has bee given the right to 1 percent of its
subsidiaries earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation and
a further fee equal to 1 percent of the total capital expenditure. Singapore
Power is owned by the government of Singapore.
The most important
impact has been that rising electricity prices have been a major contributor to
the falling standard of living being experienced by too man Australians.
According to a range of indicators, more people are finding that they are
having great difficulty in paying their bills. If we pride ourselves in being a
just society, surely we would insist that this is wrong and that something
should be done about it.
The extent of rising
electricity prices is one of those factors, which is not good for Australia’s
economic prospect. Electricity is a key
business resource. Unreasonable price hikes impose a substantial added cost to
running a business. In an already difficult environment to operate, this can be
the last straw. Depressed sales do not help either. When many Australians have
to choose to do without something in order to pay an exorbitant electricity
bill I doesn’t help at all.
It is high time for
some action to put an end to this situation.
And this is a timely
warning for the people of New South Wales who face the prospect of the
privatisation of their electricity supply. Experience in other parts of
Australia, have shown that this is not a good idea.
It would be great to share some thoughts on what ca
Janette, Victoria.
ReplyDeleteBeaut. Let's get going because clearly the quality of our lives is in the hands of thieves and as a result, we have:
* seniors, to avoid using power:
(1) in winter, wasting their days at pokie venues &/or satellite shopping centres just to keep warm.
(2) hitting the sack before dark for warmth & to avoid turning on the lights.
(3) firing up old kero heaters & candles which can lead to housefires and very nasty deaths.
* Younger folk with preschoolers heating their premises regardless for their kids' sakes & then getting bills they can't pay. Then their misery really begins - with the threat of being cut-off the grid, they waste untold hours on the phone trying to negotiate a reasonable catch-up agreement with someone overseas who knows nothing about the situation & has no authority to negotiate anyway. The stress & frustrating is soul destroying.
* Reduction in Victorian State Government concessions to people in need.
In Vic., since 1/7/2012, people are not entitled to concession across the year on electricity bills until their usage has exceeded $171.60 - the amount the Federal Govt., has compensated people with to assist with their power bills since the introduction of the much needed carbon tax.
Time to get up off our knees. Any suggestions how to do this?
Bloody disgraceful. This stuff should be shouted from the rooftops. What can we do, though? Years ago, back when a few intelligent people were trying to stop the privatisation of our electricity, I can remember signing up to a "Can't Pay, Won't Pay" campaign. Alas, it didn't go anywhere but it should have. May be we could revive this campaign with a few adjustments. Perhaps we can figure out a genuinely reasonable cost for the electricity we use and agree to pay that much and not a cent more.
ReplyDeleteThere's no doubt we need to do something, otherwise our illustrious rulers will simply continue to smash us into submission.
Time for us to take responsibilty for our own fate, put forth your ideas, we're sure to come up with a winner!