NSW solar meter change
THE NSW government’s lack of planning around the transition of early solar customers to new metering arrangements could trigger a crisis for 150,000 solar homes across the state.
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Solar homeowners will be forced to pay for new meters that could cost up to $700 which in some cases provide less information than they currently have.
There’s no detail on how the meter change will roll out across the state and it’s not clear whether all solar homes can be fitted with new devices before the 60c/kWh feed-in price expires at the end of the year.
It’s debatable whether there are even enough electricians and meters to deal with this whole-of-state transition. Any solar home left without a new meter will lose access to their solar power and be left paying more for non-solar electricity from the grid.
The Baird government said NSW can be “Australia’s answer to California” when it comes to clean energy, but NSW has gone from a solar leader to a solar laggard. This needs to be fixed, fast.
REECE TURNER,
Consumer Campaigner Solar Citizens
Exploitation soft targets
THERE is more to Jim Hislop’s letter “Disgraceful Situation” (The Border Mail, March 7, 2016) and with a high number of retired and serving Defence Force personnel in the region it may well influence the outcome in the seat of Indi at the next federal election.
For more than 30 years, successive governments have insidiously reduced the superannuation payments of more than 50,000 men and women who served for 20 or more years in the Australian Defence Force by using an inappropriate index for cost of living adjustments.
Many of these men and women have now virtually had their superannuation payments cut almost in half. The wording of the legislation which governs this scheme is so complex that a bush lawyer would struggle to understand it but vague enough to be exploited by the administering authority ComSuper.
First, by requiring members to repay, until they die, an advance made available to help them resettle into civilian life. Individuals who live to a ripe old age will repay the advance not once but as many as four or more times.
Second, by using an arbitrary indexation formula to reduce the proportional benefits of the most vulnerable, the surviving widows and dependent children of the members who are deceased.
Those men and women who are also entitled to Department of Veterans’ Affairs benefits because they served in a theatre of war, are further disadvantaged because those benefits are indexed in a manner which further reduces the effect of their superannuation cost of living adjustments.
Apart from knowing that their superannuation payments are buying less and less, many of these men and women are not even fully aware of the extent to which their rightful benefits are being denied. Those who do know have for years protested to the Authority, the ministers responsible, Prime Ministers and in fact every member of Parliament. But they have either been brushed off or just simply ignored.
For the duration of their service, these men and women were conditioned to obey orders, regardless of the consequences. They are not used to protesting and they do not have a union to fight for their rights. Which makes them soft targets for exploitation. These men and women placed their trust in the government to look after them and their families, as they were promised when they enlisted.
HERB ELLERBOCK, Rutherglen
Letter of the week
The Border Mail is pleased to announce it will run a weekly letter of the week competition - the lucky winner receives a double pass from Regent Cinemas Albury to watch a movie of their choice. Please email to letters@bordermail.com.au