Rowan Dean: Power prices reach withering heights

As the first big heatwave of the season settles in, thank all those who signed us up to expensive renewable power schemes that make it too pricey to cool our homes, writes Rowan Dean.

DON’T worry if you’re sweltering in today’s scorcher, but can’t afford to put on your aircon. It’s a common enough problem. Fortunately we Australians are an ­ingenious mob, particularly the generation that grew up in the aftermath of two world wars.

Rowan Dean.

So as you melt in today’s 40-plus heatwave, here’s a handy tip from ­Annette, a little old lady from Queensland.

On extra hot days, Annette hops into the shower and turns on the cold water. Water is, I guess, cheaper than electricity nowadays. But here’s the clever bit.

Annette also lets her bath towel soak up the cold water.

Then, instead of drying herself, she heads into her living room, semi-naked, wrapped in her cold, wet towel, and sits there cooling off. When the towel warms up, she goes back into the shower and repeats the process.

Unfortunately for Annette, her living room faces directly onto the street and neighbours can see her, sitting there in her dripping towel. But the humiliation is worth it. Anything rather than switch on the aircon.

Annette, like thousands of others in her predicament, simply cannot ­afford her electricity bills.

Or at least that’s what she told Chris Smith when she phoned his radio show on 2GB yesterday.

You could hear the anguish, the shame and the desperation in her voice. It was heartbreaking, and Smith did his best to comfort and sympathise with her.

Artwork: John Tiedemann

Now, I suppose Annette may have been a fake name and the caller may actually have been some mad right-wing, nut-job, climate-change-denier, as no doubt the lefties would insist.

But if so, give that lady an Oscar because she’s the best actress in ­Australia. And she’s not alone.

Another lady, Pauline, of a similar vintage, phoned into the same show a few days earlier with a different ­method of coping with unaffordable electricity bills.
At night, Pauline wanders around her home with a torch only, and has disciplined herself to never switch on any lights, ever. Under any circumstances. But Pauline stoically puts up with the deprivation so she can save money for the grandchildren this Christmas.

Welcome to the Australia of Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and the modern Liberal Party.

Welcome to the Australia of Bill Shorten, Labor and the Greens.

Welcome to the Australia of AGL, Energy Australia, Origin and all the “renewable” energy providers.

Electricity is now too expensive for some people to afford.

Welcome to the Australia of all those pompous, smug, posturing, sanctimonious ABC-watching luvvies who happily parade their climate change “beliefs” while sneering at the dignity and wellbeing of the army of Annettes, Paulines, Charlies, Reginalds and others across our land struggling to pay for electricity.

Earlier this year, Australian ­Energy Regulator figures revealed some 60,000 households are on ­electricity hardship payments and ­another 150,00 customers are on special plans.

The number of disconnections has soared, and consumers are paying two or even three times more than they did a decade ago for their quarterly bills.

We are talking a fistful of yellow notes every few months for people who eke out their daily budget with pink and blue ones.

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But the cost of energy can literally be a matter of life or death. As the Salvos announced yesterday, soaring power bills are one of the main reasons why an extra million kids won’t be getting a Chrissy present this year.

How ironic that the greatest ­betrayal of the post-war generation occurred in Paris in 2015, a century after Gallipoli.

That’s when Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop signed Australia up to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, condemning an entire generation of Australians to ridiculously high energy costs.

This they did without even bothering to ask the people.

A year later, Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop ratified this great betrayal on the day Donald Trump was sworn in as President. The sick twist is that Mr Trump won the election by promising to withdraw America from the Paris Agreement, which he has now done.

The even sicker twist is that our own chief scientist, Alan Finkel, ­admits that nothing Australia does can make any difference whatsoever to lowering global temperatures.

Even if the climate change scare is real (which I doubt), our efforts are completely pointless.

So while Mr Trump takes care of his people by pushing energy prices down, Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop deliberately betrayed our ­Paulines and Ann­ettes by guar­anteeing their bills will ­always be way higher than they should be.

Something to think about as you hop into that icy cold shower today.

Rowan Dean’s novel ‘Corkscrewed’ is out now: wilkinsonpublishing.com.au