Thursday, 19 February 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:36): (2344) Tonight my matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources, and it concerns correspondence I have received from a Mr Bennett. It relates to a power outage and an ongoing compensation claim that he has against AusNet Services for a voltage surge and power outage. The details of the power outage relate to 28 June last year, when Mr Bennett’s and 143 other residences in his area suffered a nearly 24-hour power blackout. Reliability is one of the key things for our power system. This began with a power voltage surge that eventually led to the total failure of the local area. Apparently a local substation had failed, leading to power surges and blackouts, and indeed he was advised by some technicians that two houses had caught fire, so this is quite serious. His insurance company will only cover a part of this. He submitted a claim to AusNet, and he has had quite a deal of engagement there. A lot of things were impacted: his refrigerator, his rangehood and a range of other electrical appliances in the home. He has lost income. This is a case study of where AusNet has got responsibility in one sense but it is the framework that has been set here. The framework is something that he has also engaged with the department to talk about, talking to a particular senior policy officer.

What I seek from the minister is for them to provide assistance to this man. There are other cases that I have had come through to me on these sorts of incidents where quite serious power outages have occurred and significant loss has been suffered by people. We expect in a modern economy to have a secure power supply where we can be sure that there is not going to be a loss of electricity supply. What I want is the minister to compel AusNet to provide a proper explanation, to make sure that Mr Bennett is properly compensated and to make sure that there is written documentation provided to him about the exact cause of the power surge and outage. If people lose their power for a lengthy period of time like that, they are entitled to know what has happened and why. I do not think that is an unreasonable request. We should see if there needs to be a review of the Electricity Distribution Code of Practice and compensation for consumers in such circumstances. There are a lot of learnings out of this specific case. Mr Bennett has been very assiduous, but the minister and AusNet have not handled this well, and I ask the minister to attend to those matters.