Many Australian households say they are paying electricity bills that far exceed the government benchmark. 

Despite recent cuts to regulated power prices, consumer advocates argue that inflated costs show serious flaws in the country’s energy consumer protections.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), a significant number of consumers are paying at or above the default market offer (DMO), the reference price set by the government. 

In some cases, households are being charged more than double this benchmark, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current safeguards.

Consumer advocates say customers should not be seeing rising bills, particularly in light of falling wholesale electricity prices. 

In May, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) announced a reduction of up to 7 per cent in benchmark prices in New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. 

These cuts were based on lower wholesale power prices following the energy crisis of 2022. 

The AER describes the DMO as a “safety net” protecting consumers from excessive prices. 

However, critics argue that with less than 10 per cent of residential customers on the DMO, most consumers remain exposed to volatile market conditions.

Retailers have defended their pricing practices, citing rising long-term costs, including investments in new-generation assets and grid expansions. 

Consumer advocates suggest automatically shifting consumers to the lowest available price when their contracts expire, so that many Australians do not continue to pay excessively high prices for an essential service.

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