The privatisation of NSW's energy grid has led to skyrocketing costs, pushing nearly one-third of households to seek energy bill relief. In Parliament today, Abigail called on the Government to intervene to prevent further price gouging by rapacious private energy companies.
Abigail gave notice of the following motion:
I give notice that on the next sitting day I will move:
(1) That this House notes that:
- the three biggest residential energy providers in NSW are Origin Energy, with 29% market share in NSW, Energy Australia, with 25%, and AGL, with 24%,
- Origin Energy announced its profits had more than doubled in the last six months from $399 million to $995 million, and
- AGL’s profits were up 78 percent in the latest earnings reports.
(2) That this House further notes that:
- Australian households are being charged $1,000 a year more than big businesses to use exactly the same amount of electricity,
- the NSW government provides over $330 million dollars in energy bill relief through the Energy Social Programs each year,
- almost 1 in 3 households access energy bill relief programs provided by the NSW Government, and
- the NSW Government is providing on average $1,200 per customer on an Energy Social Program in NSW.
(3) That this House condemns the failures of privatisation of the energy grid in NSW and calls on the NSW Government to urgently intervene to prevent rampant price gouging by predatory private energy providers.