Politicians urged to unite over bills pain

GEELONG residents struggling with crippling energy bills are sick of political games and desperate for relief from Victoria’s energy crisis.

Households in the region have been forced to go without heating in an effort to afford ballooning power prices, with residents of one retirement village reportedly risking falls with their inability to keep the lights on at night.

Geelong Grove Retirement Village resident Kevin Govenlock said he was lucky to have some money saved to keep up with constantly increasing bills, but others weren’t as fortunate.

“There are quite a few in here who are doing it solely on the pension,” the 80-year-old said yesterday.

“We’ve got friends who don’t put their lights on at night and aren’t running heating . . . they’ll have the TV on but no light on.

“With the average age here in the village being 84, the risk of falling and tripping is huge,” he said.

“The thing that affects us most is the ongoing talk about cuts to power in the summer. So what happens then if we get an extremely hot day and there’s no airconditioning? It is causing stress.”

Mr Govenlock said he wanted to see both sides of Victorian politics work together to solve the issue.

“I can’t understand the political games — point-scoring for minimal advantage,” he said. “We put them in there to govern and they're not doing it.”

Armstrong Creek resident Jan Johnson also told the Geelong Advertiser it was “ludicrous” that Victoria’s Liberal and Labor parties were not able to find a bipartisan approach to lowering energy costs.

“We’re in Australia, not a Third World country, and you expect these things to be seamless,” Ms Johnson said.

“You expect the government to look after you in terms of these things.

“There’s a lot of money and expertise there, and if you’re going to sit on either side of the fence and squabble among yourselves, that seems rather absurd and ridiculous if you’ve got the interest of the public in your heart.”

Opposition energy and resources spokesman David Southwick yesterday said he was “happy to have a discussion” with Premier Daniel Andrews about finding a mutual agreement on how to solve to the state’s energy crisis.

“This is not about smashing different governments up, this is about the best results for Victorians,” Mr Southwick said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so bad as we currently have it in Victoria, in terms of the energy crisis.

“We have businesses that are questioning their viability, you’ve got households that are making really difficult decisions about what they do in terms of their own energy use, we’ve got record levels of people being disconnected because they're not paying their bills, and there’s just no relief in sight.”

Mr Southwick also warned energy prices could soon rise further.

“The opportunity for retailers to put their prices up again happens at January 1, and we anticipate that could be anywhere between 20 and 30 per cent increase on power bills,” he said.