Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Power prices in the Australian Renewable Energy Paradise of South Australia have driven 102,000 South Australians to beg for help from food charities, according to a major South Australian Newspaper.
More than 102,000 South Australians seeking food donations, forced to skip meals to pay bills
Liz Walsh, Sheradyn Holderhead, The Advertiser
October 15, 2017 11:31pm
MORE than 102,000 South Australians seek help from food charity Foodbank every month, as parents skip meals for days on end so children can eat and utility bills can be paid, astonishing figures show.
About one quarter — or 26,877 — of those seeking food assistance are children.
The alarming figures have been released today in Foodbank’s 2017 Hunger Report, which also shows that demand from South Australians needing food has increased 21 per cent over the past 12 months, up from 84,847 last year and 56,000 the year before.
Foodbank SA chief executive Greg Pattinson said the high number of those needing assistance was staggering, but not surprising, because more and more SA families were being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to either “heat or eat”.
“We’ve heard it from so many people; the power bills come in and they have to decide: ‘Do we feed the kids today or do we not?’” he said.
…
“One lady told me that she earned $1000 a month and had just received an electricity bill and simply couldn’t afford to eat for this month — and that’s only 10km south of the CBD.
“Anecdotally, we regularly see that kids are sent off to school and they are OK, but mum and dad don’t eat … one woman told me that she had only Vegemite sandwiches for the week.”
…
The full Foodbank report is available here.
This Aussie energy price madness is very quickly becoming a major political issue. Pauline Hansen, the upstart leader of the One Nation Party, has refused to endorse any national policy which leads to higher energy bills.
Pauline Hanson’s Sunrise climate clash with Sarah Hanson-Young
CONTROVERSIAL One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has clashed with a Greens senator on Sunrise about the origins of climate change.
ONE Nation leader Pauline Hanson has had a fiery exchange with a Greens senator on Sunrise, where she claimed climate change is not caused by humans.
Senator Hanson told Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on the breakfast TV show that she was wary of claims made about climate change and its links with pollution. She was also adamant that it does not come from human existence.
“I’m very sceptical of this (climate change) because the science isn’t there, and that’s been proven,” Ms Hanson said on Sunrise.
“Climate is changing, but it’s not from humans Sarah — get this through your head.”
…
She argued that Australians were sick of high power bills. She also confirmed to Kochie that One Nation would not support the Coalition’s proposed clean energy target.
“People can’t afford it, it’s putting so much pressure on families and businesses,” she said.
‘How can a fish and chip shop afford $14,000 a quarter in electricity? How can these pubs in outback Longreach afford $20,000 electricity a quarter? Wake up.
…
My prediction – renewable energy is finished in Australia. Some green pork will continue, for now, but it would be political suicide to allow energy prices to rise any further. People struggling to feed their kids must be wondering how this avoidable catastrophe could ever have been allowed to occur. Despite the usual Australian media subservience to the greens, politicians like Pauline Hanson and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott are getting the message out to voters, about who is responsible for their misery.
Mainstream politicians who put the green religion ahead of constituents struggling to feed their families, like the green leaning socialists currently presiding over South Australia’s misery, will have an increasingly difficult time winning elections in Australia.
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That is the whole point of the greenist religion, drive people into total dependence on government. Just listen to them, they never hide it and are in fact quite proud of it.
Heat or eat? When did Jimmy Carter get elected president of SA?
“One lady told me that she earned $1000 a month and had just received an electricity bill and simply couldn’t afford to eat for this month ” – commenter above.
Here’s my question: when is someone going to sue the pants off the elected idiots and their pet project directors? They lied, didn’t they? Sue them. Class action suits are a legitimate deal.
I’m on fixed income. I have a budget to follow and I stick to it like glue. I have yet to have to visit a food pantry for any purpose other than making donations. In my area, there’s a holiday collecting point and I take stuff to it. I made a pot of white bean (cannellini) soup yesterday. I figure the cost of that was about $2.75USD and will get at least eight servings out of it. Made cornbread to go with it on the side. Is the cost of food so egregious that people can’t afford to buy the basic ingredients to make a pot of beans? Or is the real problem that they have lost the ability to cook from scratch?
And why would anyone settle for crappy stuff when you can make good healthy meals from basic ingredients? That doesn’t make any sense.
Just trying to understand this problem – is it just Aussies, or is it more common?
My current electric bill is lower than it was the month of August. We have those idiot renewable sources up here just yet, and we’d better not get them. There are companies that have wind turbines on their premises, perhaps to supplement the local power company, but I seldom see them moving. Perhaps the expense of installing them simply wasn’t worth it.
My electric was higher than August, but only because I forgot to pay it in September and they combined the two months!
Kind of O/T, but in the US, this problem arose with propane a few years back. Propane is delivered by the owner of your tank and unless it’s you who owns the tank (not that common), you buy from the tank owner. Many required their customers to allow delivery of propane whenever it was convenient to the dealer, thus allowing delivery of very expensive fuel without actually tell the customer (which is why I don’t allow that). Propane hit $5 a gallon in places, possibly more. People on social security were getting bills of over $2000 for a tank fill. Propane prices are unregulated. However, there were a couple of lawsuits, some talk of regulating, etc, and things straightened out. Free market did work to resolve the problem. Had a certain percentage of energy been mandated to come from propane, as is the case with renewables in many places, the cost could have stayed high for years.
Sara
Part of the education system here in the UK used to teach ‘Domestic Science’ [at my school (late 1960s) – possibly a different name at others] – which certainly included basic cooking.
However, only one young man in my year took DS – with most of the girls.
Such behaviour today would simply not be tolerated – if the subject is taught at al; such is the power of the ranking that a subject intended to improve a person’s future life [like cooking several basics from scratch] is dropped in favour of a subject for examination [and certificate!].
I made a soup yesterday, too – butter bean and kale. About three litres [US Quarts ~] and I reckon about three pounds. And I am no great cook – reasonably competent in some areas, that’s all.
So – with DS off the menu at school – no, it is NOT just Aussies.
Auto
It was called ‘domestic science’ here in the US, too, and both sewing and cooking were taught in 7th and 8th grades. They were offered as options in high school, but I didn’t take them. I was always the first one home at the end of the day, so I would call my mother at work and ask her what to start for supper, so that it was ready by the time people got home. Meals from leftovers were a great way to stretch a budget and learn how to cook with nearly nothing.
There are online so many foodie websites, a lot of which have simple recipes, that I can’t imagine anyone not taking advantage of them, or not buying basic ingredients for future use. It just makes sense. I live in the suburbs in a county that does not restrict gardening which means farmers markets everywhere spring through fall, and many people grow their own stuff for canning and freezing if they have the yard space. It takes maybe a 20 x 20 foot space to have a veggie garden, or even just the raised beds, covered to keep the squirrels out.
I understand the burden that a bad idea places on people on fixed income, but when they say they’re going hungry because of their utility bills, then there is something extremely wrong in this picture, and it isn’t about having a garden or clever shopping methods at the root of it.
Changes noted (UK):
1970’s – Undergraduates were generally poor, made their own beer/wine, cooked for themselves, relatively rarely had expensive takeaways. Undergraduates were also the creme-de-la-creme of the educational system . They were intelligent and resourceful and could turn their hand to lots of things as witnessed by the many and varied clubs and activities on campus.
2017 – There are 5 times as many undergraduates as there used to be, no longer the elite of secondary education system, average intelligence much lower. Have no real understanding of the practicalities of living. Rarely cook, rely on numerous takeaways, money is no issue, they are spending something they are given for free. Student houses are generally dirty and in disarray. Last year we had one houseful ask for the landlord to send an electrician to change the light bulbs as they had never done it themselves before.
The only hobby/interest most of them have involves a certain type of liquid refreshment.
The sun on the meadow is summery warmER
The stag in the forest staggers about drunk
“The Reverend Badger October 16, 2017 at 4:17 pm”
Sometime in the 80’s I worked for IBM testing computers. During one summer I had an undergrad student with me on a “work experience” week. He was, apparently, studying electronics. I found this odd because he had no idea what an AVO was and what AVO stood for.
Does anyone know when we will hit peak vegemite?
Abiotic marmite will never run out, you just need a longer knife to extract it via scraping.
No way. With plenty of CO2, there is lots more lovely organic matter to make Vegemite. My only concern then is any reduction of CO2 that could impact one of Astralia’s favourite spreads.
So as long as it’s good for you, you don’t care about anyone else?
Man’s influence on climate is primarily a moral issue…..
600000 people in germany cant pay their elictricity…old people sitting in the cold at winter…
Oh, has it gone up that much now? The last report I saw was 18 months old and it was 300,000++ in Germany. And this is because Merkel can’t get her meathooks out of renewables, isn’t it?
There is going to be something very bad come out of this.
It is an entirely invented figure.
It just gets plucked off the net with no basis to it.
and here’s an experiment for you: check the number of German households and work it out as a percentage. Then compare it to US published cut off data.
Oh: the green levy on German electricity is being reduced:
https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-renewables-fee/german-power-grid-companies-set-lower-renewable-energy-surcharge-for-2018-idUSB4N0ZH04Z
Why would they bother to check fact you never do … quid pro quo. You ahven’t once admitted to your absolute blunders.
“It is an entirely invented figure.
It just gets plucked off the net with no basis to it.”
Yet another lie, Skanky, it is reported in ‘Der Spiegel’ here: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/service/strom-350-000-haushalte-mit-stromsperre-a-1062889.html
Are you claiming that Der Spiegel just plucks its news off the net without regard for accuracy?
Why isn’t the Australian government helping the people who need help paying their utility bills?
Look on the bright side, there will be a lot fewer fat Australians…
Isn’t that what the Liberals/Progressives want? It is still for the children.
Consider Venezuela under Maduro having a solution for the obesity crisis./s
The whole energy thing in Australia is broken. For instance I used to be on time of use billing (Peak, Shoulder and Off peak) – I got shifted onto a ‘unified rate’ with a 22% discount for paying on time – net result I’m paying 20% more!! Chasing EA now, they claim they had to change the meters, no you didn’t, the original electrician’s writing is on them and the meter numbers are the same….
Their online plan changer won’t let me change to a time of use plan – as I’m currently on a unified rate plan!! So stuck in on hold hell with ‘billing’…
I’ll need a stiff drink after this!
Australia has made it clear they couldn’t care less about their energy use decisions on the rest of the planet and far into the future.
What can you say about such people, except that they’re selfish.