Bill Busters! sustainable, affordable energy
You can support our push for improved energy efficiency in tenanted housing by endorsing our campaign. In the last ten years electricity bills have gone from some of the cheapest to the most expensive in the world, doubling in Sydney alone. The big three electricity companies Energy Australia, AGL and Origin Australia are making record profits. These companies have been allowed to charge whatever they like so that now average retail bills in NSW is double the price of the ACT’s, where retail markets are more regulated. The federal government has also loaned $75 billion to support the unnecessary expansion of state owned and privatised electricity grids. This costly mistake has been passed on to all electricity users, along with a 10% interest rate mark-up!
People who are most adversely affected by rising electricity prices are tenants in run down rentals and social housing units, people who are unable to install solar panels to avoid high network fees or upgrade old technology to save electricity and money. Australia’s housing stock wastes a huge amount of energy, leaking heat in winter, absorbing heat in summer. Landlords have little incentive to improve their homes because they do not have to pay electricity bills and actually receive tax incentives to replace outdated technology rather actually upgrade it! This helps explain why tenanted homes are far more likely to have old and inefficient water heaters, or twice as likely to be missing basic necessities such as insulation when compared to owner occupied homes.
Friends of the Earth Sydney believes improving energy efficiency in tenanted housing is a simple, effective and essential way to relieve people from financial stress, improve health outcomes, cut emissions, and offer some protection from climate change that we are already experiencing. Everybody has a right to access electricity which is affordable and sustainable, and a broad, ambitious and mandatory energy efficiency standard is the most fair and effective way to bring this about.