BSL submission to the Senate Select Committee inquiry on electricity prices

Abstract

Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Electricity Prices

September 2012

For further information or to discuss this submission, please contact: Damian Sullivan Senior Manager, Equity in Response to Climate Change Brotherhood of St Laurence Email: dsullivan@bsl.org.au Ph: (03) 9483 1176

Brotherhood of St Laurence 67 Brunswick Street Fitzroy Vic. 3065 ABN 24 603 467 024 www.bsl.org.au

Summary The Brotherhood of St Laurence welcomes the opportunity to submit our views to the Senate Select Committee on Electricity Prices. Across Australia, rising energy prices have focused peoples anxieties about the cost of living. As energy prices have risen since 2007, so have the rates of financial hardship and energy disconnections. For many struggling households, the result is that they are forced to go without. Those on low and fixed income have been hit particularly hard because more of their weekly budget goes on energy bills.