our governments should buy back our utilities from these greedy companies

Its time our Governments bought back our utilities from these greedy power companies.

In Victoria we were promised that by privatizing the utilities we would enjoy much lower prices through competition.

Well this is not the case and now we are being manipulated by these greedy corporations any which way they can.

Smart meters are a joke; I have been hearing some scary stories of people that have had their smart meters installed and not receiving their first bill until 6 months later, like just before Christmas they were sent a bill for approx. $1000 dollars.

The smart meter is designed to charge you more between 7:00am in the morning till 11:00pm at night, of peak is from 11:00pm to 7:00am.

WHAT A RIP OFF!

Are we expected to be nocturnal in our domestic duties what about mums with babies?

What I want to know is why our government is allowing this to happen.
It’s very clear that privatization of our utilities is not working how it was described to us.

And all this before the carbon tax, WTF is going to happen after it?
I say our governments should buy back our utilities and send these greedy corporations back home with their tail between their legs.

 

So the ESC mandated smart meters.

They are a good infrastructure upgrade imo. They're much more accurate and don't require a guy to physically come around to your house to read.

We have peak/off-peak for tele-comunnications, transport, etc, don't see why we shouldn't have it for electricity.

So you've been hearing "scary stories" huh?

Electricity prices are going up mainly because companies are making huge infrastructure upgrades to deal with current and future population growth.

I don't think that a nationalised electricity service would be cheaper. Main argument for that is just security imo.

 

Hey ziggy so you approve of the smart meter and how the rates have been allocated, with peak period being when most people are at home.

Your a real testomony as to why we are continually being shafted my friend.

Now go tell a mum who has to wash her babies clothes that she has to wait until 11:00pm for off peak.

MMHHHAAAA MMHHHHHAAA.

 

You mean... she would throw her babies clothes into her washing machine and (shock horror) set the timer, to save what like... less than $.50? That poor poor woman.

You're not being "shafted". I mean, are you being "shafted" when you get cheaper telephone calls after a certain hour? Or cheaper downloads after a certain time? Or cheaper public transport on the weekends? No.

They're just trying to spread the load a bit. Pretty common to any utility service really.

 

Hey ziggy its not going to be cheaper, smart meters are suppose to increase your electrical bill by 35% to 40% approx.

Now this is not even taking into consideration the carbon tax, when that comes in next year we will again be hit with an increase in our power consumption.

Ok for those who think this isn't that bad what about 10 or 15 years down the road?

Where is all this leading with the consumption of energy, we all gasp at our chidlrens and grand childrens future and buying a house, well hell we'll be gasping about the price of energy in just the same way.

When fossil fuels where discovered they were heralded as CHEAP ENEGRY FOR EVERYBODY.

What has changed since then? A few greedy men have taken control of the energy sector and now they want to make us pay through the nose and the bad thing is our government and those around the world are going along fro the ride.

And ziggy i'm sure when a mother washes her infants clothes she waits till she has a basket full, so yeah i dont think one round of washing will cut it my friend.

It will be more than 50 cents, now how about adding a few baskets a week including other members of the family.

 

Right - So you just posted that on a rabidly anti-socialist site like this one?

Let's hope the right wing Yanks don't stumble into the thread!!

 

Socialist, liberal green etc just a way to divide the people over what is reasonable and what is not.

To make us squable over what is right and what is wrong because of our affiliation to some party that has a particular color is the best way to divide us.

I say take the party blinkers of and then assess the situation at hand.

After all aren't all politicians laughing at our division at the end of the day.

 

After all this time on American forums I could not agree more

I shudder at the partisan bickering that goes on over there and wonder if the same thing occurred in Rome before the fall

But back to your original position - some of the problem is with the existing infrastructure in Victoria - like a lot of other places we are now paying the price of NOT feeding profits back into the industries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station

One thing you can bet on is that the fat cat CEO's will have their little fat retirement packages while the rest of us pay extra for what should have been done years ago