• 26,000 customers waiting in limbo with very few real updates
• Still no detail on who will pay for new technology rollout
• New APAYG product must be accessible to all households

Tasmanian Labor is calling on Energy Minister Matthew Groom and Aurora Energy to end the secrecy when it comes to Aurora Pay As You Go.
Approximately 26,000 Tasmanian households use APAYG but no new customers are being accepted.
Labor Leader Bryan Green said Tasmanian APAYG customers should be better informed about their options as Aurora modernises the technology and what it will cost energy users and taxpayers.
“The information put out by Mr Groom and Aurora in the past 18 months on this topic has been patchy at best,” Mr Green said.
“Review findings were promised by the end of 2015 but a year later Aurora and the Minister remain tight lipped on key details on the future of APAYG, particularly its costs to users.
“These customers, many of them vulnerable, are being strung along. Matthew Groom should just be upfront.
“Aurora admitted today that it is not allowing new customers on to APAYG while it tries to spin that a decline in users shows less need for the product. Clearly some people are just giving up.
“The number of people using APAYG will only go down while Aurora and Matthew Groom block customers from using it.
“Clearly there is a need for the service if 26,000 households signed up before Matthew Groom put the shutters up.
“It appears the trial solution involves the use of a smartphone or tablet, and a customer on the trial was given a device because they didn’t have a phone.
“Many of the users of this system are on low incomes, they are not all going to have smartphones, let alone reliable internet access.
“Does Aurora plan to give each of the 26,000 customers who doesn’t have a smartphone a free phone?
“With better communication – including the use of social media, where it has no presence – Aurora could more meaningfully engage with its APAYG customers and be far more upfront.
“Aurora and Mr Groom must also come clean on who will inevitably pay for the new technology – customers through higher bills or the taxpayer?”
Bryan Green MP Labor Leader