Power to the people

and TV several times. Interest in an energy audit escalated as it was also being pushed by the state government and church organisations.

In an effort to meet the demand for home energy audits, we joined forces with several other bodies and thereafter called ourselves the Western Region Energy Group. These bodies were Anglicare SA, Lutheran Community Care, the Salvation Army, UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide, UnitingCare Wesley Bowden and UnitingCare Wesley Port Pirie. This widened program included audits and retrofits, a scheme to buy back inefficient fridges and freezers, interestfree loans to purchase energy efficient appliances, and energy saving products. The retrofit kit consisted of two energy efficient light globes, an AAA-rated shower head, and a draught excluder.

WACRA initiated a community-led household audit program in 2002 and the SA Government’s Retailer Energy Efficiency Scheme took hold. So, ‘from little things big things grow’ . We were approached by the SA Government to ask if they could use the Energy Friends name and of course we agreed. The SA Government still offers a free home energy assessment and energy saving products, now called the Retailer Energy Productivity Scheme (REPS), advertised in local papers (Weekly Times Messenger 15 August 2018).

The song ‘From little things big things grow’ is attributed to Kev Carmody, Paul Kelly and The Messengers, 1991.

Power to the people

Jim Douglas and Paul Laris

The Energy Friends campaign put us in touch with a large number of social justice and welfare organisations. These links and shared concerns about the privatisation and deregulation of the electricity pricing market led to the formation of the Western Region Energy Action Group (WREAG) in February 2002. WREAG members were very worried about the hardship that vulnerable households were experiencing following energy price increases.

The Henley and Grange Residents’ Association (now WACRA) determined that there was a need to raise public awareness and to put the government and retailers on notice. A public forum was held in a packed Henley Town Hall on 22 June 2003, moderated by the late Professor Eleanor Ramsay, to hear from these keynote speakers:

• Professor Sue Richardson, Director, Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University • Ms Roslyn Williams, Coordinator, Salvation Army Western Region • Mr Lou Owens, Commissioner, Essential Services Commission of SA (ESCOSA) • Hon Jay Weatherill, Minister for Local Government, Government Enterprise, Urban

Development and Planning, and Administrative Services SA • Mr Andrew Nance, Conservation Council SA

The meeting was unanimous in calling on retailers and state government to urgently address the hardship experienced by low income, concessional and carer families; to commit to ‘buy back' an environmentally friendly electricity retail market to create true competition; to provide substantial cost reduction incentives to purchase low energy use appliances; and to support an independent advocacy organisation to represent the economic, social and

environmental interests of consumers. All this with the principal aim of giving ‘purchasing power to the people’ .

This public forum attracted a lot of media attention and even more from government and social justice and welfare organisations. While the community had put a lot of faith in the Essential Services Commissioner, Lou Owens, it soon became obvious that he was restricted by his terms of reference from making significant changes to the pricing structure.

(L to R) Lou Owen, Jay Weatherilland Paul Laris addressing the public forum

WACRA wrote to and spoke with many community groups, encouraging them to become part of a larger and stronger coalition. In October 2004, ESCOSA released AGL retailer disconnection figures showing that over 13,500 households had been disconnected from the electricity supply, almost twice the number of the previous 12 months. Electricity prices in the same time had risen by 27 percent on the previous year.

This information jolted the WREAG who were successful in gaining a grant from ESCOSA to conduct a study of 12 low-income households in South Australia. Paul Laris and Associates were engaged to conduct the study that found substantial increases in electricity prices, significant energy household debt, households borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates and pawning belongings, very low uptake of power-saving devices, unaffordable electricity usage to heat or cool homes, missed family meals due to a shortage of daily living income

and increased household family health problems, with acute difficulty for those coping with illnesses involving special needs for heating or cooling.

This information also jolted a number of community social justice/welfare organisations who called on WACRA to convene a meeting to determine how we could collectively influence the retailers and government. That meeting was held in April 2005. The organisations involved included Carers SA, South Australian Council of Social Services (SACOSS), UnitingCare Wesley, Anglicare SA, Lutheran Care, Council on the Ageing (COTA), Salvation Army, Office of Youth, St Vincent de Paul, Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Churches of Christ, South Australian Federation of Residents and Ratepayers, Athol Park Energy Friends, Paul Laris and Associates, City of Marion, City of Charles Sturt, and Western Adelaide Coastal Residents’ Association. From this meeting, the Statewide Energy Coalition (SWEC) was formed with one clear aim:

To become a powerful, coherent and united voice to advocate changes for an Electricity Supply and Pricing Policy by representing and protecting the most vulnerable people in the community.

Soon after the formation of SWEC, Lou Owens announced his resignation as ESCOSA Commissioner to take up a position with SA Power Networks (a private electricity provider). Changes were made inside ESCOSA that we felt would make things even more difficult for consumers to be heard due to its bureaucratic structure.

As a result, SWEC called a public meeting of electricity consumers at the Trades Hall in Adelaide in June 2005. It was a full house chaired by Professor Fran Baum, Head of Public Health at Flinders University, with keynote speakers Janet Giles (Secretary SA Unions), Andrew Nance (Consumers Advisory Council), Julia Parr (Salvation Army), Migrant Welfare Centre, Anna Tree (Youth Affairs), Whyalla Community Power SA and Phil Saunders (Carers SA).

The meeting was unanimous in calling on the SA State Government to take greater control of the distribution and pricing of electricity; work with other state governments to remove the GST component; legislate for a fairer pricing index for all SA Housing Trust rentals; reduce pricing for households with serious health issues; introduce substantial rebates for energy efficient appliances and retro fitting for vulnerable households; stop the practice of disconnecting vulnerable households; and invite the government to work with SWEC to explore ways to increase reliability and affordability of basic supply of household energy.

In August 2005, we received a response from the state government that said in part that the SA Government Premier had been working on reducing the hardship facing ordinary people from the effects of privatisation. It had encouraged retail suppliers to introduce mechanisms such as a Hardship Policy to assist consumers in extreme hardship, introduced a $150 bonus payment for 225,000 pensioners and self-funded retirees, extended an Energy Provide concession to an additional 30,000 consumers, and created a Best Practice Framework Hardship Policy to assist vulnerable customers to better manage their electricity accounts to prevent disconnections. In addition, SWEC was invited to attend a select forum that took the form of a panel with the aim of reaching agreement on future actions.