Planned outages must be halted

With temperatures set to soar over the next few days, the Andrews Labor Government must ensure that any planned outages by energy distributors are postponed, says Shadow Minister for Energy Ryan Smith.

Planned outages, while often causing some degree of inconvenience and expense to residents and businesses, are necessary for important works and upgrades.

However, with temperatures expected to reach and exceed 40 degrees in the next few days, these outages have the potential to be life threatening.

With the Department of Health & Human Services issuing a number of Heat Health Alerts right across Victoria, it is clearly unacceptable that people would find themselves without the means to keep cool.

As the DHHS Alert states, “Heat kills more Australians than any natural disaster.”

With this dire warning in mind, the importance of a direction to halt these outages cannot be overstated.

Each planned outage scheduled across the state over the next few days represents dozens of households and hundreds of people who will be left to swelter, with potentially fatal consequences, as the mercury pushes higher.

It is incumbent on the Minister for Energy to step in, to halt these planned outages and ensure Victorian residents remain cool and safe during these intense temperatures.

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