Issue #340 – Wednesday, 20 July, 2016
Albury Wodonga’s largest circulating newspaper
You just wouldn’t read about it A LOT can happen in 100 years and that’s certainly been the case for Wodonga Library which celebrated its 100 anniversary on Friday ...
FULL DETAILS, PAGE 4
Power plays By MONIQUE KUZEFF LAVINGTON is ranked eighth on a list of the top 50 areas with the highest number of electricity disconnections in NSW with Table Top sitting at 19th, new data shows. A report modelled by St Vincent de Paul Society using AGL data looks at electricity disconnections in Victoria, NSW, South Australia and South East Queensland over a period of three years. It ranks the top 50 postcodes for each state including the states’ rural and regional areas and the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Financial distress and the high cost of power are the two key factors contributing to approximately 200,000 electricity disconnections for nonpayment raised by AGL across the four states. Gavin Dufty, St Vincent De Paul Society’s social policy unit Victoria manager, said financial hardship and the high cost of living had led to many electricity disconnections, particularly in Lavington. “What we concluded is that it’s got to do with the broader cost of living and some financial issues which appear to also be at play,” Mr Gafty said. “Particularly in the Lavington area it is definitely the lower and less disposable incomes, “And while there appears to be lower housing costs, you’ve got fairly high transportation and goods and services costs.” Mr Dufty said that other household budget costs including transportation, food, rental, and mortgage can also prompt residents to surrender a part of their household costs. “Residents have only 30 days to pay their bill until their electricity is
New data shows Lavington and Table Top on the top 50 list of the highest number of electricity disconnections in NSW ... but why? disconnected,” he said. “If you don’t have cash in the bank and you’ve got all these other things you’ve got to pay ... something’s got to give.” He said the large number of electricity disconnections in Lavington could also be a result of the area accommodating an ample retiring population. “Age pensioners are often on a re-
ally low base income so when you see declining incomes at the same time when costs are going up, something in the household budget has to give.” In analysing the postcodes with the highest disconnection numbers, the data was based on the population size in the different areas to minimise data redundancy. Mr Dufty said St Vincent de Paul approached the issue of electricity
disconnections to get an “understanding” of who were being “impacted” and what communities were being affected. He said the research would help St Vincent de Paul in assisting those threatened by electricity disconnection. “Anything that highlights the withdrawal of this essential service is important,” he said.
“When you’ve got ageing communities, the withdrawal of energy can really compromise health. “It can have significant and detrimental health implications ... and from a community perspective we don’t want those detrimental outcomes to escalate.” Mr Dufty encouraged anyone threatened by disconnection to contact community support agencies for assistance.
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