An Anangu leader from Pukatja says residents of the remote APY Lands are experiencing financial stress due to soaring food prices and newly imposed power bills.
Residents in Pukatja, Mimili, Pipalyatjara and Amata have begun paying for their electricity following the staged rollout of the South Australian government's mandatory Remote Area Energy Supply scheme, which was introduced in July.
While the scheme is supported by codes and regulations set out by the Essential Services Commission of South Australia to protect the remote customers, deputy chairman of the Pukatja Community Council Gary Lewis says many residents are experiencing financial stress due to soaring food prices and power bills.
"People don't have the money to pay for electricity or go to the shop and spend their money," he said.
"If you're buying things like thongs it's $35, and in other places like Kmart and all that you can buy it for maybe $7 or $5."
Mr Lewis notes a lot of people are struggling to find permanent work, and welfare payments are not covering basic living necessities.
"If people have got no money, they go to their families and parents to ask for money to buy the electricity and this is not the right way for people who are living in the Pukatja community and in the APY Lands right across," he said.
"It's creating a lot of concern and a lot of stress for families."
Last week, Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle travelled to remote communities including Pukatja, where she met with locals who told her about their cost-of-living concerns.
Ms Liddle told ABC Radio Adelaide she was shocked by the prices of some food items — including two litres of milk costing more than $8 on the Lands.
Mr Lewis feels the state government has not negotiated with community councils about its mandatory power scheme.
"They didn't really come through the council, they appointed MoneyMob Talkabout, an Alice Springs organisation," he said.
"They're in the middle, talking to the people and they're not really representing the community.
"It's not been set up the right way about how to train people in the meter and giving us information; so the council knows how to run the power in our own community so that we can help other people."
In a statement, the Department of Energy and Mining said MoneyMob Talkabout were contracted to provide the energy education and support services for the rollout of the program and were not required to negotiate with community.
It also insisted the department had met with councils, executives and the community to ensure people understand the program.
'Safety nets' in place
The department's director of energy programs and services, Steven Bye, said MoneyMob provided posters, leaflets, and videos produced from people in the community to educate residents.
"We did door-to-door education as well, carried out by MoneyMob Talkabout and we also employed about 30 members of the local communities who are trained in the energy education."
While retailer Cowell Electric would be monitoring disconnection rates, a clear picture of how successful the system is wound not emerge until the program is reviewed in 12 months.
"If there's people that are having disconnections frequently we will be making every effort to try and contact them and see how they're going if they need any more energy education or financial support as well," Mr Bye said.
There are safety nets to assist households, including emergency credit as well as giving customers the option to elect to pay via Centrepay, direct from an individual's Centrelink payment.
"There are a number of disconnections that we can see but that has reduced significantly over time as people have got used to it and Centrepay being applied to the meter has been a big win I suppose in reducing those disconnections," Mr Bye said.
"Newly paying customers are also being charged around a quarter of that of other residential customers ... so they're only paying 10 cents a kilowatt hour."
'A big change'
MoneyMob Talkabout's Pawa Atunmankunytjaku project manager, Nick Rickard, said while it had been a big change for everyone on the APY Lands, his team was providing as much assistance as they could to ease the transition.
"Communities started paying one-by-one so we could spend a full week in the community to have a presence there to support residents as they got used to paying for power."
Mr Rickard said although it was a challenging time on the Lands with high cost of living expenses, every household had different circumstances and varying needs for assistance.
"If you haven't paid for something like power you haven't really thought about it before," he said.
"Speaking to many community members, many do think it's a good thing because what happens in a lot of cases is people live on the APY Lands and then they might move down to Adelaide or Port Augusta, and they get stung with a massive bill because it's just something that's never been on their radar.
"So now that people are thinking about paying for power they'll be better prepared for if they do move elsewhere."
