If you’ve recently opened an energy bill, you’ve probably received a shock. Electricity and gas prices have sharply risen in recent years, far exceeding wage growth, with Australian households paying some of the highest prices in the world.1 This has been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has seen us spending more time at home and using more household energy than ever before. Skyrocketing energy bills can be a challenge for many, but for some households, they can contribute to significant financial hardship. The term “energy poverty” has many definitions but essentially describes households who have difficulty paying energy bills, or who seek to restrict their energy usage to keep costs down to such an extent that their comfort and health can be severely compromised. This is no small problem in Australia. According to the Victorian Council of Social Service, 180,000 households in the state have persistent difficulty paying energy bills, and 45,000 are regularly unable to heat their homes.2
While many factors influence energy poverty (volatility in fuel more than a decade after they were introduced in many Western European countries. In 1993, the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) was introduced in Australia, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the Building Code of Australia set minimum energy-efficiency standards for housing at a national level.
