POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Gold Coast residents and small business owners have had a gutful of soaring energy prices and are demanding action
They come from all walks of life: rich, poor and in-between. Small business people, pensioners, students, homemakers and office workers. But they share a fury at the seemingly endless rise in power prices that is now forcing them to take drastic measures. Some are handwashing clothes, others leaving airconditioners idle. All because electricity costs have surged more than 250 per cent in the past decade. Today Gold Coasters and the Bulletin declare enough is enough and implore the major parties to take serious action.
KYLIE HOLOHAN
WITH a quarterly power bill of up to $700 for a family of four, Kylie Holahan has her family on a shoestring budget.
Ms Holahan, who is unable to work due to a knee injury, said her husband was her full-time carer and her two teenage children went without luxuries.
“The kids go without things. They don’t want all the other kids get, like presents, outings ... or doing outside school activities,” she said.
Ms Holahan, 37, said the family pays back $50 every fortnight under a hardship program to pay down their power bill debt of $1900.
KATHERINE WALSH
KATHERINE Walsh has made huge lifestyle changes to keep pace with soaring energy bills.
The 50-year-old Palm Beach resident has swapped her large fridge for a smaller one and even hand washes her clothes so she doesn’t have to use the washing machine.
“And we’re doing other things to cool ourselves during the day,” she said of airconditioning through summer.
Ms Walsh, who lives with her daughter and grandson, said her power bill was around $600 at the moment, but had cost her up to $1000 per quarter in the past.
MONICA MCFARLANE
THE energy bills of this Ashmore family of seven are so exorbitant the airconditioning is a no-go.
Monica McFarlane, her husband Adam Scott and their five children spend about $850 per quarter on energy bills alone.
Ms McFarlane says power is so expensive that the kids are not allowed to use the airconditioning. “The girls ask for it all the time. No way,” she said.
Ms McFarlane said the expensive bills also meant she couldn’t always buy the clothes she wanted for the children and their weekly grocery shop had been scaled back.
JODY BRAIN
JODY Brain’s son is just 18 months old but she is already concerned about his future living costs.
Ms Brain, of Pacific Pines, says she is paying $70 a fortnight.
And she fears for her son’s future if costs continue to rise so fast.
“I’m a single mum so it’s not like we use an exorbitant amount of electricity,” she says.
Ms Brain says electricity is her largest utility bill.
“Just the cost of living is absolutely ridiculous, like rent and fuel,” she said.
“It’s unaffordable, especially for a single mum.”
RIC ALLPORT
RIC Allport has done everything to try to cut down on his electricity bill. And it isn’t working. Switching off power points, turning off lights and reducing television time are just some of the things the Mermaid Beach resident has done to restrict power costs.
“For a unit with just a single person, I just think it’s crazy,” says Mr Allport who pays around $350 a quarter for electricity.
“I thought (my bill) would go down with the reasonable changes, but it actually went up.”
WENDY ALLDER
WHEN Wendy Allder hits the supermarket, she makes a beeline for the clearance section.
The Pimpama resident says she has her utility bills to thank for that.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “Every single cent is watched and budgeted. There’s no room to move or breathe.”
Every quarter, Ms Allder spends about $400 on electricity and then another $100 on top of that for gas for her family of five. “Right now I’m trying to write up a shopping list and thinking what can I feed that’s healthy but I can actually afford,” she said.
VIVIENNE JOHNSON
DESPITE putting solar in
18 months ago, Vivienne Johnson and her husband Jim are still paying an exorbitant amount for electricity.
With just the pair in the house, quarterly power bills are still costing around $800.
That’s including a saving of about $400 thanks to the solar panels, according to Ms Johnson.
“Everyone says to me, why is your bill so high?” she said.
“I don’t know. I know my hubby watches a lot of TV but apart from that (I don’t know).”
BERNADETTE BRUSHE
JUST two people live at the Brushe family home at Tamborine Mountain but they are still hurting.
Every quarter Bernadette Brushe pays more than $500 in electricity bills.
Ms Brushe lives with her 85-year-old mother, but says neither of them is at home a lot.
“She’s really active, out in the garden or visiting people,” she said. “I’m away for 12 hours a day.”
Ms Brushe said she could see on her bill that they used the same amount of energy as a family of four, which she found “ludicrous”.