Western Sydney social housing tenants plunged into darkness after bureaucratic bungle

An extraordinary NSW government blunder plunged a Liverpool public housing block into a blackout for more than two weeks after officials seemingly “forgot” to pay the power bill.

An extraordinary NSW government blunder plunged a Liverpool public housing block into blackout for more than two weeks. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Power was cut to a western Sydney public housing block for more than two weeks because the state NSW government forgot to pay its power bill worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Families and Communities Minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones on Monday slammed the departmental blunder as “unacceptable” after common areas of a public housing block were plunged into darkness, leaving residents locked in their homes at night, too scared to leave.

The lights were only turned back on after taxpayers paid an outstanding electricity bill of more than $21,000, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The Telegraph understands that the electricity bill for the Miller apartment block’s common areas went unpaid after government officials moved out of an office attached to the building.

Government officials seemingly forgot to tell the electricity provider that the office had closed: electricity bills continued to be sent to the empty office but no-one was there to collect the mail.

Susana Isern, 75, at her public housing apartment in Miller. Power was cut off to her building’s common areas because the government forgot to pay the bill. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Remarkably, bureaucrats were only alerted to the fact that they had failed to pay their bills after power was cut and residents complained.

While power stayed on in individual apartments, it was cut to the common areas — including the carpark, stairs and the foyer.

Resident Susana Isern said the blackout — which began at 8pm one evening — was “very dangerous” because the stairs were pitch black.

“You’re scared to go in and out of your building,” she said.

“I didn’t even want to open my door,” the 75-year-old said.

“Everything was really dark. The stairs were like a cave.”

Ms Isern was too scared to leave her apartment at night because her building’s common areas were pitch black. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Ms Isern’s complaints about the blackout were handballed between the building’s maintenance team, government departments and the power company for a fortnight before the issue was resolved.

“I rung almost every day, each of them, for no answer at all for about two weeks,” she said.

Local MP Paul Lynch said it was “unforgivable” that residents were put in danger.

“Plunging residents into darkness because the government forgot to pay a bill is outrageous,” he told The Telegraph.

“Marooning residents in their units is treating them as second class citizens. Rather than organising overpaid jobs for their mates, the government should try to get the basics right.”

A NSW government spokesman blamed the problem on an “administrative error” that led to the power bills being “sent to an incorrect address”.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused by the outage. The correct address has been provided to the energy provider and the bill has been paid in full,” the spokesman said.

Ms Maclaren-Jones said she believed the incident was isolated to the Miller apartment block.

“As soon as we found out about what had occurred, it was rectified straightaway, and the department has apologised to the tenants,” she said.

“It was unacceptable.”

Originally published as Western Sydney social housing tenants plunged into darkness after bureaucratic bungle