Suffer through the cold and heat no more: FiftyUp Club take members views to court
The stakes in this court battle could hardly be higher.
A tribunal is deciding if your power bills will actually go down or unbelievably climb by almost $6 billion over the next four years.
But given the public anger about bills, which have already doubled in the past five years, it’s all very polite. At the tribunal a smiling informal judge greet us and there’s home-made scones for morning tea.
We’re readying our papers at the Australian Competition Tribunal sitting to in Sydney ready to bring your voice to the three men who face a mighty decision.
Should the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) price determination meaning power price cuts from $106-313 a year for average households stand?
Or do the energy networks, which distribute electricity through poles and wires, deserve a break so they can ensure a bush-fire safe and reliable supply?
It matters to you which is why the FiftyUp Club has a platform for 15 minutes to convey the opinions of 5,000 who responded and shared 800 comments from the two surveys we’ve conducted on this issue.
There are packs of lawyers, the media and interested parties from around the state and beyond seated on the opulent 20th floor of the Federal Court.
It’s not everyday consumers are given a box-seat near to the seat of power to get their interests ventilated and if this had happened five years ago one wonders if power prices would have spiked so high.
We are among the first off with the key message that affordability is by far the single most important priority for you when it comes to interests.
The tribunal has to weigh up the long-term interests of consumers, which includes you as well as everyone from farmers to industry, with respect to price, quality, safety, reliability and security.
You were clear what you wanted.
The survey shows overwhelming support for the AER’s decision with 74% agreeing with the statement “We've been paying too much for too long.”
An overwhelming 96% considered such interests had not been adequately considered in the past. You clearly rated issues such as affordability (77%) ahead of reliability (9%), safety (9%) and quality (4%).
And 85% believed the regulators such as the AER had not got the balance right between these competing aims. Only 3% thought they had.
Over-50's such as Charles Falzon from Western Sydney shared his opinion in the submission.
Click Here to read the FiftyUp Club submission
Click Here to read the May survey
Click Here to read the June survey
The comments we did read out included:
"Go to Bed at 7pm-8am then go and sit in shopping Centre if too cold."
"Drop to a much lower standard of living.eg no heaters or fans . Suffer through heat and cold. less showers etc."
"Use the A/C sparingly, less baked Dinners."
Time flew by quickly and there was just time to make an often overlooked point. We are all in debt to the networks’ ability to bring the wonders of electricity to us day-in and day-out is usually taken for granted.
That being said it was your view that we shouldn’t be in debt to pay the bills and it was time for the networks to tighten their belts as we deserve relief not added costs.
The Tribunal members asked some piercing questions showing they had listened carefully and thoroughly to us, thanked you, for your input.
It’s not over and with so much money at stake you won’t have heard the last of this process but for Day One the FiftyUp Club had a pretty good showing.
