Adjournment
Victorian Energy Compare
Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (17:17): (1231) I raise tonight a matter on behalf of my 96-year-old constituent Helen Richards from Doncaster, specifically in relation to her ability to seek a discount on her gas prices. My constituent Mrs Richards was using Tango Energy and noted that she was forecast to have a significant rise in her gas bill from that energy company. Her son Ken used the Victorian Energy Compare website to find a better offer, which he did. He found GloBird Energy, which had a very good offer, released on 21 July, not long ago – a few days, actually – and which is still on the Victorian Energy Compare website as of today. They confirmed they could service his mother’s property. They provided a quote; the plan is on their website. It is all very straightforward. Mr Richards, on behalf of his mother, tried to sign up online. That failed. He tried by phone, which also failed – that was on 23 July. He raised a complaint with the company, who told him they were unable to sign his 96-year-old mother up because there were too many customers, and they did not provide any other reason beyond that. His mother, as I said, is 96 years old. She is a very reliable payer of utilities bills. She was given no reason as to why she cannot be signed up to these deals, despite them continuing to be offered on that company’s website. Her son went to the energy and water ombudsman and asked them to provide some explanation on what might be the case for these companies to be able to use the government’s energy compare website to provide offers and then selectively choose which Victorians they will or will not offer these products to.
So the action I seek from the Minister for Energy and Resources tonight is for the minister to give clear directions to energy companies about how they can provide product or deny product to Victorians when on the energy compare website so that Victorians know, when using the government website, they can be denied a product for no reason by companies, despite being decades-long, reliable payers of utilities bills seeking nothing more than a better deal as offered by the government on an energy compare website. The company itself has chosen to pick and choose which Victorians they wish to take their business and provides no reason as to why it is going to ban someone from getting a good deal.