Cool gas reaction

By Kath Gannaway
GORDON Jackson pays $30 a week for bottled gas to keep his rented unit warm and cook his food.
For someone on a single pension, it’s a lot of money.
“With petrol costs, food and rent, it doesn’t leave much at all,” said Mr Jackson, who as president of the local senior citizens club, knows he is not alone in struggling to pay rising electricity and LPG (bottled) gas bills.
“The majority of citizens at the club are on their own and whether they are renting or own their own homes, they would find it very, very difficult to connect up to natural gas,” he said.
He would prefer to be taking advantage of the recent natural gas roll-out along the Warburton Highway but said he appreciates that with the current incentives for adapting or changing over appliances, it just wouldn’t be cost effective for his landlord.
According to a report to be released this week, Mr Jackson is typical of a large number of residents in the Upper Yarra corridor who have been left out in the cold when it comes to access to the financial benefits which were promoted as part of the natural gas roll-out last year.
The report, Upper Yarra Gas Extension Equity Survey, undertaken by Eastern Access Community Health, revealed that of the 6000 homes eligible to connect to natural gas, only 3000 have taken up the offer.
The townships affected are Wandin North, Seville, Seville East, Woori Yallock, Launching Place, Don Valley, Yarra Junction, Wesburn and Millgrove. The pipeline does not go to Warburton.
The report is based on a study conducted by Bernadette Douglas and Ian Gartland of EACH with funding from the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre (CUAC).
Its aim was to ascertain equity of access for consumers and its focus was to explore the barriers and issues that resulted from certain segments of the community not taking up the opportunity.
Ms Douglas said the target group was home owners on low incomes, tenants in private rental accommodation and tenants in public housing.
The report found that despite the promise of rebate incentives and reduced fuel costs, many low income homeowners and renters did not connect.
Landlords, too, have not taken up the option with the report claiming 90 per cent of tenanted properties are not connected.
Of 169 rented properties in Millgrove, only five are connected to natural gas. In total of 434 rental properties in the survey area, 26 are connected.
Case studies revealed it was common for households to spend more than $90 a fortnight on heating.
“This is a considerable portion of their income when only in receipt of between $440 and $540 a fortnight,” the report stated.
The estimated cost of bottled gas for a family of four was between $1800 and $2000 a year. Natural gas would cost about half that amount.
The reports recommendations include that all government housing properties in the Yarra Valley be converted to natural gas immediately and called for government regulation of minimum heating standards for all rental properties.
It calls for a reappraisal of the rebate incentive packages under the government’s own A Fairer Victoria policies and that the Department of Human Services Capital Grants Scheme be broadened to allow low income households to purchase gas heaters where the previous heating was wood or electric.
It further calls for the gas run-out to be extended to Warburton.
EACH will present the report to Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato on Thursday for representation to consumer groups and the government.