Sadly I reside in NSW and an hour ago I opened my electricity bill for the winter period. It is the highest I have seen in my life, $1437, same period last year was $710. I thought it a mistake but the neighbour said theirs arrived yesterday and it was $1200 from just over $500 for the same period last. They called to check if it was correct, yes it is and the meter had been read so no guestimates.

The fairly new local shop keeper and purveyor of many things frozen complained last week that his electricity bill will be hitting $45k this year but when he moved in two years prior the bill was $25k and had been stable for years. His solution is to ditch some freezers and he has, what else can he do. His corner shop just got $20k year taken from it, and this guy does not drive a beamer.
What happens to prices if a carbon tax is introduced federally? Vavavoom I would suggest.

Consider the waste from NSW labor over the past 6 years let alone the whole term. Just one recent example is the metro light rail. It never started and is dead and gone but it has cost us a minimum of $600 million and not a sod was turned. We should have kept control of our destiny and paid for the infrastructure to the grid in exactly the same way we are paying for it now, through the nose, but at least we would own it. Labor has sold everything we own and we are still no better off.

I travel to most states regularly and NSW is at the bottom of the barrel. My companies return in June reflects the sad truth. QLD+18%/VIC+20%/SA+16/WA+19/ and NSW+4%. Nothing altered in the marketplace to accommodate a particular reason for the growth so the reflection is of disposable income and consumer confidence. NSW is consistently last in the KPI of the compared states economies; Tassie creams us pound for pound for god sake.
NSW is dead someone bury us please.

Thank you Sonogloin for this discussion.

During the Howard years the push for privatisation was widened to include profit making institutions/monopoly's such as
Telstra, Banks,Power Supply, Gas, Water etc.

Labor State Govt's were also responsible for such behaviour but the clincher
(and the reason for the ridiculous size of your bill Sonogloin)
is changes made to the Trade Practices Act by the Howard Govt.

As a sweetener to the prospective purchasers of such essential services monopolies,
Howard introduced "a new notion" to the TP Act in that
"profit was no longer held by the bounds of limitations".

A "charge what you can get notion" was now, a fair proposition for a business operator.
Even more so if your business is an essential services monopoly.

What you pay for electricity depends upon which business/cartel holds your supply contract. And who could fail in such a business where increasing profits are guaranteed
by the sheer control you have when being the supplier of an essential public utility service.

Another symptom of these changes made federally by Howard, is one small business supplier wants $23 for something that is $16 elsewhere.
Petrol goes up and down up to 16 cents a day without rhyme or reason.

The reason is, "because it can" under the current TP Act and therefore is set to continue
to rise along with the greed of the business operator now in control of your essential electricity supply Sonogloin. Or petrol etc, even grocery cartels abound.

Thank John Howard/Peter Costello as caveat emptor now reigns supreme.

And banks tell you in advance that they are going to put up interest rates beyond those of the Reserve bank to cushion the blow

Hay thinker, I don't know who you pay your bill to, but I'm in Qld, where the taxpayer still generates our power, & all rip offs are courtesy of labor.

15 years ago my cost of hot water wads $14,00 a quarter, with 5 people, 3 of them young ladies, with long hair. Now, with just 2 using it, the power consumption is down somewhat, but the bill is now $82.00 per quarter.

And these idiots think they can push this rip off up even further, with a carbon trading scheme. I won't say over "my" dead body, but the thought of some such does get attractive.

We here in Melbourne have just had the same with our water. Used less than last bill but my bill is double :(

It's becoming too expensive to live in this society, I can't afford what were once considered standard services for our citizens anymore.

Once they bring in the carbon tax, it will be bye, bye for us, back to candles and a trip to the local creek for a wash!

Is this what that trailer park trash refers to as moving forward?

That's certainly a huge power bill, sonofgloin. Indeed, I'd think that $710 is pretty high - let alone $1437!

I hope that's for a business, rather than your home...

Dear CJ,

Welcome Back!

Your voice of reason has been sorely missed
on this Forum!

Such a relief to see you posting again!

It's cheered me up heaps!

Dear SOG,

Your bill seems outrageous!

Is it a business or a home?