Page 1214 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 24 June 1992
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old, the infirm and the very vulnerable - often those who have little or no control over household budgets and who put their trust in their carers to pay for the service. These are the people that the Liberals are not prepared to assist in protecting.
Let us take a couple of case examples that I know of. Upon discharge from hospital, a young single mother caring for a premature baby found her electricity disconnected. The mother was unable to pay the cost of reconnection. She was unable to use lighting, provide heating, sterilise bottles, heat milk and wash soiled nappies. I give another example. A woman's husband, a very violent man, frequently assaulted her. He did not pay the telephone account, so Telecom disconnected the service. As a result, she was unable to call for police assistance when she was next assaulted. Conversely, some households may make a decision to meet an essential service account at the expense of other necessities - such as food, clothing or consumer credit payments - to avoid disconnection. In this situation, many households turn to voluntary welfare agencies, such as the Salvation Army or the Smith Family, for support. This causes a significant drain on already overtaxed and limited community services that have experienced unprecedented demands for aid over the past year, with huge increases in requests for assistance in winter months.
ACT laws and agreements sanction several monopolies that provide services essential for the maintenance of an acceptable standard of living. The ACT provides some of these services, such as fire protection and police services, from taxes levied on the community and business. Individual users of the services are not required to pay directly for those services. Other services - such as the courts, the health system and the provision of low-cost housing - whilst provided by the ACT, also impose some costs on individual users. Sometimes these costs act as barriers to dissuade trivial or non-essential use of services. Sometimes they act as a signal to users of the cost of the services. Often, service providers impose these costs at the time the service is first sought - for example, a court lodgment fee - or as part of a structured system of regular payments, such as concessional rent payments.
The provision of milk and eggs, under monopolies established by the Milk Authority Act 1971 and the Egg Authority Act 1975, imposes costs on consumers at the point of sale. Consumers are able to make informed decisions about the cost of purchasing these goods. Water, sewerage and waste collection services are fixed cost services that are not withdrawn because of failure or inability to pay for the services. However, service providers can pursue debtors through the courts and, in some cases, outstanding debts become a charge on the land.
However, electricity, reticulated gas and telephone services are provided to consumers on the principle of supply first, pay later. For each of these services a consumer may run up high costs in a short period, without indication of the cost incurred. Some cost may even be incurred without the consumer being aware of it - for example, automatic reheating of water during a cold snap, or temperature controlled central heating. Some consumers are not aware of the costs incurred until an account arrives.
Let me deal with electricity. In 1990-91 ACTEW disconnected 1,489 domestic consumers of electricity. They reconnected 717 customers after they had settled their accounts and paid a reconnection fee of $10. The remaining 772 customers had left their premises. In a sample of Australians questioned in the National
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