Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NTCOSS's Sarah Holder says we need to be looking at more energy efficiency as the NT's power price increase and general cost of living impacts households

Transcript

NTCOSS's Sarah Holder says we need to be looking at more energy efficiency as the NT's power price increase and general cost of living impacts households · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But unfortunately the cost of living right now in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory and right around Australia, it is set to
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  Speaker 1: be I think one of the biggest issues as the
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  Speaker 1: federal budget is handed down next week and we are
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  Speaker 1: all waiting to hear whether there are going to be
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  Speaker 1: sort of any reprieves I suppose, or any any bonuses
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  Speaker 1: whatever they maybe want to call them when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to things like petrol and other cost of living expenses.
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  Speaker 1: But joining me on the line to tell us a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more about how some territorians are coping at
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  Speaker 1: the moment. It is the NT cost so NT Council
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  Speaker 1: of Social Services here in the Northern Territory, Senior Policy
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  Speaker 1: Officer Sarah Hold. Good morning to you, Sarah.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah. We know that the cost of living around the
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  Speaker 1: territory at the moment, I would imagine that it's really
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  Speaker 1: quite high, particularly when you look at things like the
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  Speaker 1: rising cost of petrol.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie. We don't have the current CPI data,
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  Speaker 2: but when we were looking out of the Gymmer Price
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  Speaker 2: Index data, but when we were looking at a last year,
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  Speaker 2: we can see that it costs were increasing right across
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  Speaker 2: the Northern territory and it's just disproportionately high in places
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  Speaker 2: like Darwin in comparison to the rest of the country.
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  Speaker 2: But then it's even higher again when you are outside Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine so, particularly in some of those
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  Speaker 1: regional and more remote areas, it would be very high.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. When we were looking at the fuel data for
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  Speaker 2: December last year, the average price of unlettered duel in
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  Speaker 2: Darwin was then a dollar sixty nine or thereabout, sense Falda,
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  Speaker 2: and in Central Australia the average price is two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and eighty cents palia. And again it's higher when you
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  Speaker 2: go into other you know, into the remote communities and
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  Speaker 2: places like can increase et cetera.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, we're talking last week as
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  Speaker 1: well about not only is it the cost of petrol
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  Speaker 1: that's going up or that is you know, is sky
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  Speaker 1: high right now, but the impact that that has on
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  Speaker 1: things like our food and going out and buying our groceries.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So if the impact of fuel costs isn't just
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  Speaker 2: on when you're fueling up at the pump, it impacts
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  Speaker 2: as you say, it impacts our growthery and impacts pretty
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  Speaker 2: much everything particularly for the Northern Territory where transport costs
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  Speaker 2: are so high. It really does it drugs up prices
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  Speaker 2: right across the boards.
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  Speaker 1: And I also noted in the paper today that it
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  Speaker 1: was being reported that Territorians are obviously feeling the heat
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  Speaker 1: more than ever. As the effects of two point three
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  Speaker 1: are two point three percent July electricity rates rise begins
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  Speaker 1: to show. Is this something else that's that's of a
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  Speaker 1: concern for you guys right now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a huge concern. So we know that living
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  Speaker 2: in the NT does mean at times living in dangerously
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  Speaker 2: hot conditions, and there's some recent data that's come out
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  Speaker 2: that show the temperatures in many rental homes are actually
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  Speaker 2: frequently above safe limits. And so we know that it's
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  Speaker 2: so cooling energy needs right across the NT, but also
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  Speaker 2: heating needs for people in Central Australian winter they're really
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  Speaker 2: high in the NT and this is primarily because of
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  Speaker 2: the quality of building and the ANT is the only
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  Speaker 2: place in Australia where we only have five star minimum
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  Speaker 2: energy rating for new buildings, whereas everywhere else in Australia
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  Speaker 2: it's a minimum of six ster. And there's some places
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  Speaker 2: in Australia that are considering moving to seven star ratings.
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  Speaker 2: So we really need to see high energy efficiency standards
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  Speaker 2: in all new builds, and we need to also look
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  Speaker 2: at existing dwellings to see what their needs are and
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  Speaker 2: what we can do to improve their energy efficiency.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is tough for a lot of people at
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  Speaker 1: the moment as those different different living expenses go up.
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  Speaker 1: I know it's really hard. Are you seeing a demand
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  Speaker 1: in the need for services and for support around the
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  Speaker 1: NT right now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we definitely know that more people are looking for
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  Speaker 2: emergency relief from our members and also just looking to
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  Speaker 2: access social supports and things like dealing with increased anxiety
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  Speaker 2: and those sorts of stresses as well. So yeah, we're
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  Speaker 2: definitely seeing any impact on services.
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  Speaker 1: And Sarah, I don't want to preempt anything too early on,
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  Speaker 1: but we know that the federal budget is due to
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  Speaker 1: be handed down next week. Are there certain things that
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  Speaker 1: that NT costs are waiting to see if they are
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  Speaker 1: in there to try and help those territories that are
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  Speaker 1: going through a tough patch.
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  Speaker 2: We don't think it's going to happen, but we would
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  Speaker 2: really love to see a simple and better investment from
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  Speaker 2: the federal government into easing immediately easing cost of living presses,
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  Speaker 2: and we want to see that through lifting income, including
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  Speaker 2: substantially increasing the remote area allowance, increasing job seeker UTH allowance,
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  Speaker 2: and we also would like to see them improve sorry
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  Speaker 2: access to housing and essential services. And APOST is also
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  Speaker 2: calling for one thousand dollars per household for emergency energy
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  Speaker 2: get relief to reduce any energy payment difficulties made worse
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  Speaker 2: by COVID.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so so that one thousand dollars boat. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what did you call it a debt
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  Speaker 1: relief or a relief payment?
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  Speaker 2: I guess real? Yeah, yeah, so you look, that's Acos's line,
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  Speaker 2: and we think that would be a great idea and
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  Speaker 2: that would certainly be applicable to people and the ant
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  Speaker 2: as you know, we did see through some of the
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  Speaker 2: lockdowns that people their power, their prepayment, the credit ran
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  Speaker 2: out and they were left without power. So we do
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  Speaker 2: think that this would be a really good way to
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  Speaker 2: address those sorts of.
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  Speaker 1: Concerns well NT cost Senior policy Officers, Sarah Holder, I
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for
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  Speaker 1: having a.
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  Speaker 2: Chat with us. Thanks so much for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you