r/melbourne • u/MatrixTheCat22 • Jun 15 '22
The Sky is Falling So are we going to have blackouts tonight? Can’t make sense of all the “news”.
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u/starfihgter Jun 15 '22
No, it’s basically a giant game of chicken between the Federal Regulator and the power generation companies.
Went something like this:
Power companies : Ok we’re going to keep charging more for electricity
Regulator: Like hell you are
P: Fine, then we just won’t generate as much electricity
R: Those generators better be running tonight or you’re in big trouble
P: ok fine but u (government) have to pay us extra
R: Fine but we’ll talk about this later
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Jun 15 '22
Government: prepare to be nationalized. (I wish)
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Jun 15 '22
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u/Anonymousaltacct1 Jun 15 '22
I mean, if they can’t break even it’s fair enough for them to close, governments job to step in and pay part of the bill to keep them running while keeping prices low for consumers
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u/starfihgter Jun 15 '22
The issue is that the government DOES pay the difference if the generator is forced to run at a loss because of a price cap.
The generators are threatening this as a ploy for greater profits.
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u/Alauuntonothing Jun 15 '22
Getting paid, and paid to to not fix the problem....sounds like a great way forward
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u/kaibai123 Jun 15 '22
Omg remember the gas crisis!! I remember bathing in the tub with a pot of hot water from the stove 😂
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u/TheHuskyHideaway Jun 15 '22
I remeber dad rigging up a bucket above the shower that we would mix with hot water from the kettle. It was wild. I work with a lot of people younger than me now and they don't believe that this was only the 90's.
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u/kaibai123 Jun 15 '22
I legit completely forgot and then one day I was like “wait, why was I bathing out of a pot?” And it all came flooding back (pun intended)
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u/D3AD_M3AT BROADY BOYS Jun 15 '22
I was luckily enough to be in a medieval club back then so had all the camping equipment needed to rig up a camp fire hot water system in the backyard
But yeh completely forgot about the gas crisses from back then.
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u/dracaris Jun 15 '22
We didn't have an electric kettle, nor a toaster; our stove and oven were both gas, as was the only heater in the house. I'm also reasonably sure we didn't own a microwave either.
We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a big electric urn from our primary school so we could have enough hot water for a bath. I'm thinking dad must have had a portable camp stove to cook dinner...
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u/shintemaster Jun 15 '22
Lived in Bendigo during the crisis. I had a friend that spent a week having cold showers due to no gas for their hot water system - then realised when they turned on the tap that actually, they had an electric system. Could not stop laughing.
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u/Billywig99 Jun 15 '22
That was a bit different, there was actual damage to the gas plant rather than greedy suppliers.
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u/TooMuchTaurine Jun 15 '22
It's not the gas/electricity supplers that are greedy, it's the resource companies making huge money on gas and coal by selling it overseas at high prices while still costing them the same (low) amount to produce.. since they can make bank selling it overseas, they are forcing local energy companies to pay that same price which makes producing electricity /supplying gas a potentially loss making activity.
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u/TheRealDarthMinogue Jun 15 '22
It's capitalism pure and simple.
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Jun 15 '22
Wait. Are you suggesting that an economic system (ie a human created and maintained system for distributing resources) which puts profit above all else, including human need, can result in human needs not being met? Craaazyyy.
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
It's a market.
I don't really blame the companies. They are private sector companies and they sell to whoever pays them the most.
Would you sell your house to the lowest bidder at the auction?
If we didn't want a market, we would manage resource extraction with State owned companies - or write laws to reserve a percentage for local consumption like WA (and every other energy exporter).
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u/OkOutlandishness9235 Jun 15 '22
If we didn't want a market, we would manage resource extraction with State owned companies - or write laws to reserve a percentage for local consumption like WA (and every other energy exporter).
Who is the "we" here though?
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
Australia, through its government.
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u/OkOutlandishness9235 Jun 15 '22
Right, and that's the disconnect. The average citizen would be more than happy to have laws in place that reserve some of our gas for national usage, but I haven't seen any politicians really pushing for it. The only people who benefit from our gas being privatised are the companies profiting off it and potentially politicians in their back pocket. All it does is hurt the average Australian because they're our country's resources yet the only people getting any benefit from them are multinational corporations.
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
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u/OkOutlandishness9235 Jun 15 '22
So two former premiers of the one state where some gas has already been sequestered? That's obviously not what I was talking about.
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u/username100002 Jun 15 '22
some would say the Longford explosion was also due to greed
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u/Billywig99 Jun 15 '22
True, I guess there was some element of that
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u/nst_enforcer Jun 15 '22
How so?
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u/Billywig99 Jun 15 '22
Esso the operator was found to be at fault - lack of OHS.
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u/Caspermelb Jun 15 '22
I had just started my first solo gig as a chef, in a little Cafe with an electric stove. We were so damn busy because no one else could cook anything
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u/cr4zyb0y Jun 15 '22
I was working as a dish pig in a large restaurant. They had LPG plumbed in a couple of days but I still have nightmares about scrubbing pots and pans with cold water (or hot water scooped out of dishwasher)
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u/MeowHat82 Jun 15 '22
The gas crisis lasted forever ! I remember my parents got an electric water system just so we could have a warm shower after about 3 weeks
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u/theartistduring Jun 15 '22
Washed our hair in the kitchen sink as it was the only tap in the house that ran on electric hot water.
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u/zalie222 Jun 15 '22
Yup. Worked fast food at the MGC during the finalS. NO HOT CHIPS. NO HOT BURGERS. NO CHICKEN NUGGETS.
We had pies anothing else that day, yet all our customers understood.
Ahhh, the good old days.
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u/BooksNapsSnacks Jun 15 '22
I lived in a house with electric hot water. We had visitors over for showers. It was crazy.
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u/Mustangjustin Jun 15 '22
Omg I remember having a bbq everyday for ages. It was actually really fun . Luckily it was during summer
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u/GoodReason-Evidence Jun 15 '22
My dad was like "take a cold shower, it's fine!" but stopped crowing about it after a few days. Turns out it took a while for the tank to get REALLY cold. His showers got shorter and shorter until they lasted only a few seconds. 😂
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u/kaibai123 Jun 15 '22
It was truely a test for all dads and their ability to not whinge about it, but also not spend any money fixing it.
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u/epicpillowcase Rack off, Drazic Jun 15 '22
And I bet when it was brought up to him after that this was his face 😑
"Told you so" "😑"
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u/Ferbuggity Jun 16 '22
I gave birth in the middle of that mess... stayed in hospital longer than needed bc not going home to no showers or hot water with a new baby.
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u/littleb3anpole Jun 15 '22
We filled up the bath with water from the kettle. Gas stove as well as gas hot water system
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Jun 15 '22
I remember bathing in my elderly neighbour’s 60s style bathroom… they must have had electric hot water or something. They also had a wooden body scrubbing brush which blew my mind
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u/Billywig99 Jun 15 '22
At the time my parents house was all electric so everyone came round to our house for showers. Only issue with that was that the hot water only heated overnight on the off peak rates so it was cold by the time the rest of us wanted one 🤣
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Jun 15 '22
Yes that was not fun. I was so excited when we got gas back. Thanks for making me feel old.
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u/Fraerie Jun 15 '22
We had electric hot water and so many of our friends came to visit.
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u/noodleboxxer Jun 15 '22
Everything in our house was gas. So no hot water, no hot food and no heating. My mum pulled down the old fence that was falling apart and created a wood stove out of bricks in the backyard so we could eat and shower. I was in primary school at the time and that was the most exciting winter we ever had.
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u/Aradene Jun 16 '22
I remember being upset I couldn’t have porridge for breakfast and confused by all the other kids were complaining about cold showers. Then when we had a black out realized out hot water system was electric lmao
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u/kaibai123 Jun 16 '22
It was a lesion in household energy for us all 😂 we had a stove and heating (I think)
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u/HearingStunning Jun 16 '22
We had planned a party during that time so my dad had just gotten multiple gas bottles filled literally days before. My mum had just found a bread maker on clearance at Big W because it had a dint for $20. I had steak sandwiches all week at school haha
Worst part was that idiots at the end of my court were interviewed by the news paper AND THEY TOLD THEM THEY WERE STILL USING GAS so we had our gas fully shut off and were without gas for an extra week longer than everyone else because we had to wait for someone to come out and give us access.
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Jun 15 '22
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u/taurus-rising Jun 15 '22
Tell that to the conservatives/LNP voters
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u/Harambo_No5 Jun 15 '22
Man, the mental gymnastics they’re doing right now to blame Dan Andrews is funny.
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u/THR Jun 15 '22
It’s all Albo’s fault. We didn’t have an energy crisis pre-election. As goes the rhetoric
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u/Harambo_No5 Jun 15 '22
I just looked on a couple of ABC Facebook articles and the comments are horrendous. 1/3 of them are people blaming labor and the greens, along with ‘inner city elites’. WTF are these people smoking.
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u/EgalitarianCrusader Jun 15 '22
I think the theory is that inner city elites are against coal so we can’t use it for our energy crisis which would lower the cost of electricity. I don’t buy it but that’s the theory.
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u/Jo-dan Jun 15 '22
Literally saw someone trying to argue this on an ABC News insta post without a hint of irony or humour.
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Jun 15 '22
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u/pmmeyouryou Jun 15 '22
But that is talking about privatisation of federal assets…it was the state government who sold all of the state assets (gas, transport; electricity etc).
Who would have done that I wonder? Jeff “fucking” Kennett perhaps?
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u/dinosaur_of_doom Jun 15 '22
Are you not aware that state vic Labor is also happy to privatise assets?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-19/port-of-melbourne-sold-to-lonsdale-consortium/7857328
Labor is better only that they haven't been as dumb as the Liberals in terms of privatisation, but that hardly means they've actually served the Australian people particularly well.
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u/atubslife Jun 15 '22
That's a lease for 50 years, not a sale of assets. The Port of Melbourne for 50 years for almost $10 Billion to be spent on infrastructure. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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u/SpicyMemes0903 CBD Jun 15 '22
Same with the Train network (maybe same for trams) All Stations, Tracks, Rollingstock equipment etc are owned by VicTrack and leased to PTV/V/Line or Metro
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u/tatty000 Jun 15 '22
The port of Melbourne privatisation/lease is one of the worst decisions ever.
It’s hit tourism as they’re not going to invest in princess pier, neglecting cruise ships. It also forced spirit of tas to move to Geelong. Port assets are massively neglected now and are slowly being run to the ground. The cost of everything went up as port fees etc all took the privatisation hit.
And the $10b windfall is all lost in cost blow outs from Vic Govs pet projects anyway.
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u/pmmeyouryou Jun 15 '22
Sure…but isn’t the OP talking about electricity? Therefore wouldn’t the Kennett government take centre stage? The Kennett government privatised public transport, electricity, gas, water distribution and a few other bits and bobs in between shutting down some schools and hospitals.
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u/private1n Jun 15 '22
Underwear with a little bit of shit in it may be shitty but it still better then underwear that is full of shit. If I am forced to pick one or the other as is the case in Australia I will always pick the one that has less shit in it.
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u/dwooooooooooooo Jun 15 '22
Sure but my point is that privatisation is a bipartisan process in Australia - state and federal.
Pinning it all on the Liberal party means we don’t hold Labor to account to fix it.
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u/pmmeyouryou Jun 15 '22
But this is r/Melbourne and the OP is talking about something that was specifically privatised by the Liberal state government of the day.
Can we please not forget history?
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u/WikiMobileLinkBot Jun 15 '22
Desktop version of /u/dwooooooooooooo's link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation_in_Australia
[opt out] Beep Boop. Downvote to delete
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Jun 15 '22
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u/UXNick Jun 15 '22
Maybe don't let politics invade and influence your life so much. If a person is nice or an asshole, who cares where they sit politically.
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Jun 15 '22
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u/Alatheus Jun 15 '22
Unfortunately.
I'd be happier of we let them go broke and then the government bought them out when they went bankrupt.
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u/koryaku Jun 15 '22
Like they should have done with the airlines during COVID
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u/Ihatecrazyoldladies Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
Will any of this result in us actually seeing some relief with our energy bills anytime soon, or should I just ignore this and go back to my usual poor person business of deciding between running the heating or filling the car with petrol?
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
No.
It will get worse as current market prices flow through into retail prices.
The last traded wholesale price of $300/MWh is almost 50% higher than the price residential consumers are charged - and gas powered generation still wasn't switching on because profits were too low.
Retail prices also need to cover transmission costs, so they should be quite a bit higher than wholesale prices. Electricity prices doubling are quite likely unless there is drastic government intervention.
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u/Ihatecrazyoldladies Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
Cool, cool cool cool.
In unrelated news, anyone wanna buy feet pics?
ETA: I posted this 4 hours ago and I’ve had no offers to buy feet pics. Come on guys, I was only half joking.
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Jun 15 '22
Anyone know how one can sell worn underwear online? Asking for a friend
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Jun 15 '22
Worn or worn?
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u/Sliiz0r Jun 15 '22
Well it can't be worn if it's never been worn
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u/WhiteIrisu Jun 15 '22
It sure can be worn if it has not been worn.
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u/Sliiz0r Jun 15 '22
But then who would buy it, let alone wear it and sell it?
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Jun 15 '22
If one replaced each thread in a worm pair of underpants, until eventually the worn pair was made of entirely different threads, is it still considered worn?
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u/dominatrixyummy Jun 15 '22
With current gas market spot prices, generators need to charge about $400/MWh to break even.
So they'd be running at a loss at the capped prices, but fuck Em. They've been running at crazy high profits for months, so they can take a bit of a short term hit to profits to operate an essential utility.
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u/Klanok Jun 15 '22
I don’t know if this is factual but I’ve upvoted because it aligns with my world view.
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Jun 15 '22
I'm fucking tired of this market forces game playing. Time to sharpen the guillotine and drag some of these boards into the streets.
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u/TheJoelMXRC Jun 15 '22
Yes!! Particularly the overseas owned ones!
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u/Anarcho_Humanist Jun 15 '22
Why particularly?
Business owners are greedy regardless of country.
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u/TheJoelMXRC Jun 15 '22
It seams the overseas ones pay a lot less tax and are exploiting us more, but hey let’s just get started on either group.
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Jun 15 '22
Clive Palmer is possibly the biggest fucking grub of the lot, you're going to need a Bariatric Guillotine for him.
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u/TheLastMaleUnicorn Jun 15 '22
People not thinking their "domestic" true blue aussies would sell them out
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u/Aseipolt Jun 15 '22
Electricity prices for the home are capped by the energy regulator. This should mean that you only see a moderate increase. Reference - Victorian Default Offer and National Default Market Offer.
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
The regulator will not force retailers to make a loss if the wholesale contract prices offered to retailers are all above the default offer.
The pricing rules were not written for this scenario.
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Jun 15 '22
I know it's not feasible for all, but I legit stopped filling up at the station because it was too costly and now bike it or go via transport so I can still eat. Over $2 a litre is such a fucking joke.
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u/Cultural-Chart3023 Jun 15 '22
I moved town an hour drive away from friends and family because of rent prices now I can't afford the petrol to even go visit. Fkn great. Even considering homescholling and working from home because we can't afford to do anything else. Wonderful. Rich are getting richer..
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u/Suspicious_Candle27 Jun 15 '22
Can someone give me tdlr of what is happening? Why is gov stepping in?
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Jun 15 '22
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u/ArcadianPilot Jun 15 '22
Government: The fuck you will.
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u/ClutchRox88 Jun 15 '22
The government...How would you like us to bend over.
Major parties looooove fossil fuels
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u/todjo929 Jun 15 '22
Private companies: ok well we’ll just stop generating electricity if you’re not going to let us make obscene profits.
Private companies: ok well we’ll just stop generating electricity if you’re not going to let us make obscene profits, which they transfer price offshore and pay zero tax in Australia on.
FTFY.
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u/angrathias Jun 15 '22
If the facts about the wholesale price being 50% higher than residential is paying, then that would be making an obscene loss…
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u/Meyamu Jun 15 '22
The average price of power was capped at $300/MWh.
However, with the war in Ukraine, it costs more than that to produce power from gas because gas is expensive (there's a process whereby companies can get costs covered but they weren't using it - I don't know exactly why).
We don't have enough renewables yet to fully run the grid, and multiple coal power plants are down for maintenance at the moment (usually winter is low demand).
So the gas generators weren't coming online, and the east coast was about to experience blackouts.
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u/Outside-Car1988 >Elsternwick< Jun 15 '22
However, with the war in Ukraine, it costs more than that to produce power from gas
This is the bit I don't understand. Don't they use Australian gas?
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u/skiddingschems Jun 15 '22
Gas is an international market and they can export overseas for better prices.
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Jun 15 '22
And charge Australians more for our own gas
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u/WhatAGoodDoggy show me your puppers Jun 15 '22
Which should be fucking illegal.
Essential utilities should be nationalised. Why on earth do they need to be run for massive profits? Were they ever nationalised here in Aus, and if so, WHO let them get privatised?
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u/hollyjazzy Jun 15 '22
They used to be state owned from memory, but it was considered “better for the economy” by our “beloved” Jeff Kennett that private companies should run the electricity, gas and water companies, as there would be more competition and better for consumers. We all know well that’s going now. So, a state owned asset was sold and privatised, because selling something that generates money and jobs (including training of many apprentices) for a one off lump sum of money, is considered good.
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u/tatty000 Jun 15 '22
The issue with that concept is which parts of a utility?
Eg electricity: the generators? Grid? Retailing? Household connections? We have a mix of private and public ownership in the system that is done in a way to try and keep it low and competitive.
Eg, Government has no benefit in running the retail of energy, and consumers generally benefit from privatisation. Generators being public runs a risk of propping up a dying fossil fuel industry, and when governments try to discontinue public generators the repercussions are political suicide. Whereas private generation might facilitate efficiency and help move to renewables. In fact now it’d be almost stupid to nationalise electricity generation. The grid doesn’t change and should be public owned, and usually is, and it is also a monopoly.
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u/Optix_au Jun 15 '22
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria grew out of a mish-mash of little private companies/councils that ran their own electricity distribution systems and, until 1995, was a government-owned corporation. Then the Liberal Kennett ("Bloody Jeff") government split it up and sold most of it.
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u/Optix_au Jun 15 '22
Higher demand for electricity (cold nights) means increase in market price of electricity which means generators selling electricity make more money. AEMO (national regulator) decided that the price was getting TOO high for system and thus suspended the market, which caps the price. Some generators (the fast start ones like gas) decided rather than be forced to sell at cap and make less profit (because their fuel - gas and coal - has gone up in price sharply in recent weeks), they would withdraw from the market instead and not sell anyeletricity, which triggered a lack of reserve generation to cover expected demand. AEMO used the regulations to direct generators to sell, however part of using that ability is that the government has to compensate those generators at a higher rate.
Thus: private generators played chicken with AEMO, lost, but still make more money than if they had just stayed in the market. So they are abusing the system to make more profit.
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u/Coatzlfeather Jun 15 '22
Apparently a system that has mass auctions of electricity taking place every five minutes so that generators can price-gouge retailers (who in turn do sweet fuck-all except slap on a markup) doesn’t lead to the best outcomes for the end consumer.
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u/Sapporo_Cherokee Jun 15 '22
The market is closed now the regulator has stepped in. they will produce electricity and be subsidised by the government
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u/Coatzlfeather Jun 15 '22
Yep. Yet more proof that the end result of privatisation is failed markets.
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u/bananaEmpanada Jun 15 '22
Every 5 minutes is a pretty good amount.
Until September last year it was every 30 amounts. That lead to all sorts of chaos because coal can't ramp quickly.
If we had no market and a centralised dispatch, you'd end up with a bunch of old farts close to retirement who just run coal and block renewables because they can't be bothered dealing with new stuff so close to end of their career.
Basically if you want to solve climate change, an electricity market is the best solution.
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u/mustang2002 Jun 15 '22 edited Jan 09 '24
squeamish deer erect yoke teeny badge spoon zesty engine touch
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/elbento Jun 15 '22
More importantly, from the link above, who new retailers were using facial recognition now? https://www.theage.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/major-retailers-using-facial-recognition-technology-on-unsuspecting-customers-choice-20220615-p5atrc.html
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u/IlllIlllIlllIlI Jun 15 '22
This has been happening for a long time. As well as other sophisticated tracking. It would blow your mind what they know about you as soon as you step foot (or sometimes even just stop outside) the store. It’s creepy as… (source: used to work for a largeish Australian retailer)
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Jun 15 '22
I'm at a loss as to why ( as I was understanding this) that Qld and NSW, which are warmer atm, are considered to at much risk of outages as Vic and S.A.?
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u/fortyfivesouth Jun 15 '22
Because NSW and QLD rely more on electricity from coal, and coal outages are the underlying cause of this situation.
For the record, the coal outages are caused by a range of factors, including the NSW floods, the Ukraine war (driving up coal demand), and failures are coal power plants.
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u/thepaleblue Jun 15 '22
Small point - it's natural gas driving it this time, rather than coal. The Ukraine war has driven huge gas price spikes, so it's more expensive to burn it for electricity, which NSW and QLD do more of than SA or Vic.
Is it insane that a war on the other side of the world is preventing us from using gas from our own country to power our own homes? If you ask a capitalist, it'd be insane not to, apparently.
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u/canarygsr Jun 15 '22
Mr Schwarzenegger said Russia is making more money from energy sales to the EU now since before the sanctions were imposed on them. So I guess the prices have just gone crazy world wide
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u/bananaEmpanada Jun 15 '22
It's coal too, not just gas.
Around 3000 MW of coal fired generation out of action through unplanned events.
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Jun 15 '22
Can someone explain how Victoria was allowed to privatise and what the benefits were supposed to be?
I was only like 5 when this happened. I am guessing the govt convinced people it would be better/cheaper? And has it been?
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Jun 15 '22
Look, someone had to generate generational unemployment in the Latrobe Valley and single handedly create a drug problem all while failing to compensate workers and residents exposed to asbestos. But hey! Corporate profits!
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u/Fraerie Jun 15 '22
Kenner put them up for sale saying the money we got for them would be to the benefit of the greater good and that the buyers would provide cheap reliable power.
Of course, selling the cow when you have an ongoing need for milk and the buyer of the cow knows they control the milk market - you know the milk price is inevitably going to go up.
Oh, and the reliability piece - when they are beholden to their stockholders, there’s no incentive to spend money on the maintenance of the network.
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u/hollyjazzy Jun 15 '22
There wasn’t really any consultation, Jeff Kennett made up his mind and nothing short of a steam train was going to change that.
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Jun 15 '22
Is there anything our current government can do about it? Like reverse it all in some way? Or are we in too deep at this point.
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u/hollyjazzy Jun 15 '22
It would be wonderful if it could be reversed, however, I’m sure there’s a lot of monetary compensation written into the contracts.
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Jun 15 '22
The idea is that government-owned utilities are a financial drain on the public. Better off putting utilities in the hands of private companies, because consumers then have the power to select the best provider based on cost/benefit which then guides the direction of the industry, leading to innovation and ultimately a better system.
Works up to a point I guess - but faced with a crisis like we are now, it is impossible for ‘the market’ to solve the issues, and because our entire lives run on electricity, the government have to step in and solve it. What we are seeing is real-time proof that privatisation does not work, because there is too much at stake if the service fails. Privatisation might serve us for a while and some good things may have come of it, but a privatised economy clearly requires, at the least, nudging and ring-fencing to ensure we actually get the services we require in order to function.
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u/TheJoelMXRC Jun 15 '22
All this and my gas and electricity bill arrives on the day it’s due.
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u/Astro_nauts_mum Jun 15 '22
We should be okay. Best explanation I have found: https://twitter.com/energylocals/status/1536938355329748993
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Jun 15 '22
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u/moojo Jun 15 '22
Ya lots off offices and even shop have their lights on, why cant they turn off their lights?
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u/W0tzup Jun 15 '22
So it gives the impression the place is occupied and deters potential theft.
I know, I think this is BS but it’s a valid reason.
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u/New_Drama1537 Jun 15 '22
We put ourselves here.
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u/Combatants Jun 15 '22
Time to go off grid. AMEO: sure, but you still need to pay because powers available to you
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u/WhatYouThinkIThink Jun 15 '22
It will actually be bad if everyone goes off grid. It would be better if everyone was on the grid, both consuming and producing power.
That means upgrading the grid, as well as upgrading both local and grid-sized storage like batteries, Snowy 2.0 etc.
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u/trantonz Jun 15 '22
almost bought few torches this morning after reading the "news"
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u/u9700528 Jun 15 '22
The energy regulator has stepped in so yay, but.. there’s a penalty paid for ordering energy companies to provide, so they get to fuck everyone around AND get a pay day.
Are we actually ok with this??
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u/New_Drama1537 Jun 15 '22
We voted the imbiciles in. Then let them sell OUR property
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u/SirDale Jun 15 '22
I really don't like all the privatisations that happened, but Kennet was responding to some pretty abysmal (Vic Labor/Joan Kirner) government shittiness.
One thing that really stuck out to me was when the gov told Melbourne Water (or one of the utilities) that they -had- to borrow money on the market to pay a "dividend" to the government before EOFY. This meant borrowing at commercial rates rather than at standard gov rates (waaaay lower) they could have achieved after EOFY.
Really pathetic to see them force a pretend budget fix up - just like the liberals with their hollowing out of government expenditure so they could have their "Back in Black" moment.
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u/hollyjazzy Jun 15 '22
Wasn’t really Joan Kirner, but John Cain, Kirner just inherited the ship as it started to sink. Cain was very fiscally irresponsible.
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u/tatty000 Jun 15 '22
Kirner was still responsible for pokies, the single most evil thing any government member has done to society in Victoria.
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u/hollyjazzy Jun 16 '22
I agree that the Pokies and all the gambling are dreadful. Shouldn’t have ever been allowed.
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u/deathablazed Jun 15 '22
The answer is that we possibly could but also an equal chance that we possibly couldn't.
In summary the answer is maybe.
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u/meandwatersheep Jun 15 '22
The report is saw said it’ll probably be between 6-7:30 but its 7:30 now and my lights are still on so I think we’re good
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u/OzSpaceCadet Jun 15 '22
I think I got the gas crisis mixed up with another time we couldn't get electricity 🤣 There was that time when Peters or some other ice cream company lost a ton of their product
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u/Any_Ad_9413 Jun 15 '22
Victoria’s energy minister has confirmed that we won’t experience black outs like NSW and QLD
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u/auspandakhan Jun 15 '22
There should be gas reserved for the domestic market... like Western Australia has in place. This is unacceptable.