TasNetworks outsourcing addiction hurting all Tasmanians

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union State Secretary Michael Anderson says that long delays and disarray in power metering work due to it being outsourced by Aurora (TasNetworks retail arm), is another example of a failed outsourcing model, causing costly, lengthy delays for consumers.

“Metering work, like many other important functions, used to be done in house, and still should be, but TasNetworks has chosen to outsource yet another function, to the detriment of the community.”

The decision to outsource was incorrectly based on NEM (National Energy Market) rules about Power of Choice was supposed to deliver benefits to consumers, but has done the opposite, the Union says.

“This didn’t need to happen. The company who won the metering tender, Metering Dynamics, is from QLD and owned by the QLD government, so clearly TasNetworks could have kept this in house, but chose not to.”

“The turnaround time of a power meter replacement or upgrade traditionally was 10 days, under Power of Choice changes it was lifted to 20, but now consumers and small businesses are battling with wait times of several months. It’s not just the end users either, electrical contractors are going without payment for work done months ago due to the work needing to pass through 3 sets of management, profit margins, admin processes and approval.”

“For example, customers who have installed solar panels, and expect to get them connected in 20 days are waiting upwards of 7 weeks. Electricians who are doing the work are waiting longer than that to get paid. This was very rarely an issue when undertaken by TasNetworks, but has been constant since it was contracted out late last year.”

This is due to passing the jobs through multiple entities. Firstly, the metering requests go to Aurora (the retail arm of TasNetworks), to their contractor in QLD, then their preferred sub-contractor on the ground back in Tassie.

“It’s a mess; more expensive, clearly more inefficient, and results in the former in house jobs going to insecure contract based employment, its bad all round.”

The CEPU has been told that cost blowouts are adding to those issues, and are jeopardising other service contracts.

“How many more examples do we need to see that outsourcing does not work and hurts the community before decision makers see reason? The reality is that the profit generated by our power industry should be put back into the community, not handed over to private companies at the expense of the taxpayer.”

“Energy Minister Guy Barnett should intervene and direct TasNetworks to take the work back in house, and conduct a review into all outsourced functions, to make sure Tasmanians are getting the best possible outcomes from the power network that they own. A failure to do so would signal his satisfaction with the current situation.”

ceputas.com.au
Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union State Secretary Michael Anderson