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Research by a leading economics consultancy reveals these Victorian, South Australian and NSW households are being slugged well over twice what Norwegian power companies charge and about 70 per cent more than in Sweden.
And this is before taking into account the new widespread surges in costs on July 1 of as much as 15 per cent in SA and 12 per cent in NSW. Prices in Victoria did not change. They move at the start of the calendar year.
The state with the lowest prices is Tasmania, despite having no competition in their market.
Queenslanders can take little comfort from their charges being middle of the road, because costs are rising faster than anywhere else — up more than 150 per cent in the past decade, which is half as much again as in Western Australia and 40 per cent quicker than in SA. Sunshine State rates jumped by another 3 to 4 per cent on July 1.
The official advocacy body on electricity said the situation was concerning, with power increasingly becoming a “significant expense for ordinary familiesâ€.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
“We’ve got a market where the consumers are not seeing value,†said Rosemary Sinclair, CEO of Energy Consumers Australia, which was set up by the federal, state and territory government last year.
Ms Sinclair said the results of yet-to-be-released surveys by the ECA show customers have neither confidence in the privatised market or a sense of control over their power costs. These messages had also come through in a series of town-hall-style meetings around the country, Ms Sinclair said.
The international price comparison report by Melbourne-based CME was done for One Big Switch which today launches the Big Energy Switch in a bid to create group-discounted power offers.
“This report confirms what Australian bill payers already suspect: we’re paying top dollar,†said One Big Switch campaign director Joel Gibson.
“Only higher taxes make final electricity prices more expensive in some nations, such as Portugal, Germany and Denmark.
“Australian governments of every stripe have failed to control power prices, so it’s time to see what a national People Power campaign can achieve.â€
FLICK THE SWITCH
The Big Energy Switch campaign is seeking 40,000 Australian households to help unlock group-discounted energy offers to fight the high cost of power.
CME said in its report that it could not compare to some nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development such as Canada because its price data is not collected by the OECD-affiliated International Energy Agency. CME also excluded countries such as Slovenia and Estonia for being at a “significantly different†stage of development to Australia.
Nationally, prices are up 120 per cent over the past 10 years, One Big Switch’s analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
ECA is not associated with the Big Energy Switch.
Go to www.onebigswitch.com.au for more information.
There is no obligation to take up any offer. News Corp Australia and One Big Switch will earn a commission from any accepted deals. News Corp is a shareholder of One Big Switch.
Go to www.onebigswitch.com.au for more information
There is no obligation to take up any offer. News Corp Australia and One Big Switch will earn a commission from any accepted deals. News Corp is a shareholder of One Big Switch.