WE MUST HAND BACK SOME POWER TO OUR MOST VULNERABLE

HOW did we become a place where older Australians are dying because they can’t afford to turn on the heater?

New figures from NSW Health show a staggering 34 per cent increase in the number of people hospitalised because of cold-related illnesses, such as hypothermia.

In Victoria, there were 217 cases of cold-related illnesses between 2009 and 2016, prompting Monash University’s Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah to state that elderly people are “highly vulnerable, especially when partnered with poor clothing protection, many may underestimate how cold it really is, poor housing stock and an inability to afford adequate heating“.

At the same time, we read in NewsCorp papers this week that power prices have gone up 117 per cent, and nearly 7000 people have had their power cut off completely because of debts owed to power retailers.

We all know we’re paying too much for power, but urgent action is needed to help older Australians during the extremes of winter and summer.

While I’m not an immediate fan of throwing money at problems, surely someone in Canberra can try to create a system where families can reach out to power companies and consider forgiving the debt owed by their most vulnerable customers.

Perhaps we can create a system where you can top up bills received by older members of your family.

A couple of years ago, Liberal MP Craig Kelly was mocked by the media for claiming people would die as a result of higher power prices.

Those outside the bubble knew he was right then, and he’s right now.

Such statements aren’t over the top, they are a desperate plea on behalf of the people we claim to protect.

Bills keep going up, even if you go out of your way to use less power than last month.

This creates genuine stress on people’s lives, and something is very wrong when this stress is so extreme that it means you choose not to turn on the heater.

But don’t expect much of the media to even notice.

They are too busy screaming for policies that will push up bills because the only emergency they care about is the “climate emergency”.

The human faces paying the health costs of this agenda should give the Left pause – after all, they claim to be so much more compassionate than everyone else.

However, if you, your parents or grandparents get in the way of their broader agenda, they will just run over the top of you by ignoring statistics like the ones we learnt in the papers this week.

To use one of their favourite talking points – the evidence is in and too many older Australians who have given their all to build what others take for granted are hurting, and they don’t have to.