Electricity users have a right to be angry about the latest outrageous increases in electricity prices. The media have told us that these rises were 15 per cent, which would be bad enough, but in fact they are much higher. In August, my supplier, AGL, raised the price of peak power by 19 per cent, of off peak by 23 per cent, the supply charge for peak power by 28 per cent, and supply charge for off peak power by 38 per cent. How can electricity companies possibly justify such huge rises, especially when they follow significant rises in the past few years. In fact electricity prices should have gone down, as the price of coal, a major component of power costs, has recently decreased by about 33 per cent.
Considering the facts that Australia has such enormous reserves of coal and that there are no transport costs to most of our power stations, I used to naively believe that Australia would have some of the cheapest power in the world. On a recent visit to Canada, I enquired about the household costs of electricity, and was amazed to learn that Canadian prices are about one quarter of ours. The same low prices apply in most states of America.
There is obviously gross overcharging of electricity in this state, and those responsible should be apprehended and called to account. This situation also indicates the incompetence and/or corruption of those responsible for fixing electricity prices. As our electricity industry is Government owned, they would have to bear much of the responsibility for allowing this shocking situation to develop.
Sadly, Australia is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in or to visit as a tourist. With electricity prices being one of the major costs of our manufacturing industries and the further impost of the carbon tax, one wonders how this country will be able to compete in our global economy!
C R Holford
Tamworth
