General News
30 August, 2023
Answers sought on rising energy costs
SOARING gas and energy costs were a hot discussion in Terang this week as Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor visited to hear from around 30 members of the community concerned about the “unusual” issue.
SOARING gas and energy costs were a hot discussion in Terang this week as Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor visited to hear from around 30 members of the community concerned about the “unusual” issue.
Mr Taylor joined Member for Wannon Dan Tehan at the Terang Returned and Services League hall on Tuesday for an open discussion on the topic.
The issue has become a growing concern in the community recently which saw Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell raise her concerns in parliament, saying a number of Terang residents had said their gas bills had increased by more than 80 per cent.
A number of attendees to hear from the Shadow Treasurer and Member of Wannon brought their energy and gas bills to highlight the soaring costs, many of whom were paying hundreds of dollars each month more than usual.
Several attendees said their bills had more than doubled, with some stating the cost of gas and energy was causing them to switch off heating and find other means of staying warm.
Mr Taylor said it was clear the community was being severely impacted, particularly vulnerable residents such as the elderly.
“There are people being hurt as a result of what is happening,” he said.
“When you’re at a point where you’re having to turning off your heater on a cold night, it’s pretty clear it’s a serious issue.
“Something is wrong.”
Mr Taylor said the issue was an “unusual” situation as Terang was being hit harder than other communities.
“Clearly there is a specific situation because it’s not traditional gas, it’s bottled gas,” he said.
“It sounds like the supplier has been taking advantage of that.”
Mr Tehan collected bills from attendees to closer examine and gain a better understanding of how to work towards finding an appropriate solution.
“We’ve got examples of bills here and they’ve specifically brought them,” he said.
“This came about from us engaging with the community.
“We started to put this issue up, and I thought the best way to approach it would be to get Angus so we could get these examples.
“It’s a mixture of a state government, federal government and a competition issue but we need to make sure we go away and deal with it.”
Mr Taylor was visiting Terang as part of a tour which has taken him to communities across Australia, which he said has revealed the extent of the rising cost of living.
“I’m on a tour of understanding what the big issues are all around Australia so I’m getting out to towns in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia in recent weeks,” he said.
“One of the big issues here was energy, which we’re aware of the rising cost of gas within the local community.
“Gas was a particularly focus in this visit (to Terang), and we’ve also had a round table in which we’re taking a particular focus on the issues impacting small business.
“There are a lot of concerns about the rising costs of electricity in general, not just gas. It’s a big deal, especially for small businesses and manufacturing.”
In addition to his visit to Terang, Mr Taylor also visited a number of other south west communities including meeting with Timboon Distillery owner Josh Walker to talk about the impact of excise tax on alcohol.
“The general theme is rising cost of living, rising cost of doing business, how that’s impacting businesses and how the government can help to alleviate that and what are the best ways to take some of the pressures off,” he said.
“We’ll go on and have a look at the issues but it seems the price hikes on gas (in Terang) have been exorbitant.
“I’ll work closely with Dan to see what some of the alternatives are.”