Electricity Privatisation: Low-income families in NSW will be hardest hit
ANGLICARE Sydney has called upon both the NSW Government and the Opposition to consider the long-term impact of electricity privatisation on low-income families.
ANGLICARE Sydney’s CEO Peter Kell, says any increase in the cost of electricity caused by privatisation will be felt immediately by low-income families and those that rely on welfare payments.
“Electricity is a necessity, not a luxury. It is essential for maintaining a basic standard of living in Australia. ANGLICARE Sydney knows from first hand experience that people on the margins often struggle to keep up with paying for utilities, especially during the winter months.
“ANGLICARE Sydney would like to see the NSW Government guarantee price regulation beyond 2013 to ensure low-income families and individuals are not made worse off by electricity privatisation. What we don’t want to see is vulnerable consumers increasingly squeezed by rising energy costs following de-regulation.
“While the Auditor-General has given the State government the green light to proceed with privatisation, the Auditor-General’s assessment is that proposed protections for customers in NSW only ‘appear broadly consistent’ with other jurisdictions.
“However, the experiences in South Australia and Victoria show us that competition alone, particularly for an essential service, cannot guarantee affordability in the long term”.
ANGLICARE Sydney is one of a number of community organisations that provides Energy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA) with funding from the NSW Department of Water and Energy.
The EAPA Scheme provides vouchers to assist clients struggling to pay electricity and gas bills following an assessment interview.
A research report to be released shortly by ANGLICARE Sydney based on interviews with more than 450 EAPA clients indicated that 88 per cent of clients were seeking assistance with electricity payments.
Reasons for seeking assistance through the EAPA program included:
• High and unavoidable expenses, such as a higher energy bill than usual, many bills at once, medical or car maintenance expenses, etc (87 per cent of clients gave one or more reasons in this category);
• Reduction or loss of income (42 per cent gave one or more reasons); and
• Life circumstances and other reasons, such as illness, mental health issues, relationship breakdown, etc (31 per cent gave one or more reasons).
“While the government has pledged a number of ‘common good’ measures to mitigate the impact of privatisation on vulnerable consumers, the reliance of programs such as EAPA will only increase without ongoing price regulation”, says Mr Kell.
“Equitable access to energy must be a priority for governments when considering any changes as to how it is supplied”.
ANGLICARE Sydney is the urban mission and welfare Arm of the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church. The Diocese of Sydney covers 57 State electorates which are home to about 70 per cent of the population of NSW.
