When once the state governments were responsible for charging costs to the community, based on a Government Pricing Regulating Tribunal, it is now a ‘price’ based on a ‘profit’.

I recently wrote an article entitled ‘Electric Shock’, mentioning where electricity offers could be very confusing to the community, particularly aged people.

The to and fro, of negotiation in the private sector, is foreign to the majority to these people and to many others in the community.

Where in the past, a price from the government was accepted as gospel, prices from the private sector are ‘quotes’, up for negotiation.

This is true of many community necessary areas.  Energy supply, heath insurance, general insurance, etc.

My recent experiences have shown discounts for electricity usage and supply, vary from nil up to 17%.

Health insurance where options have to be checked. I found my wife and I at 80, were covered and paying for maternity insurance. 

Motor vehicle insurance where if you try hard, you find that if someone in the family is aged 50 or over and who might drive your car, or the kilometres you drive a year are low, the cost of the policy drops considerably.

Now all this may seem reasonable to the business world but I am sure it is not for a vast majority in the community.

The famous quote that, “everything is negotiable”, is becoming the new world.

Tom Cornforth

Port Macquarie