There is a special little fee reserved for being busy, tired, loyal, or allergic to call-centre hold music.
It is not printed on the bill as “couldn’t be bothered ringing us tax”. That would be too honest. It arrives dressed as an electricity plan, usually one you have been sitting on for a while, quietly getting worse while the better offer sits somewhere else in the same building.
Punter’s Politics called it out as the July 1 power bill shock. Loyal customers opening bills, seeing ugly hikes, then finding out the whole thing may have been negotiable if they had rung up and asked for the better deal (The West Report / Punter’s Politics).
Lovely system. Stay put, pay more. Make a fuss, possibly pay less. Standard issue bullshit.
The safety net moved
The Australian Energy Regulator’s final Default Market Offer for 2026-27 kicks in from 1 July. The DMO is meant to be the regulated safety-net price for households and small businesses on standing offers, and it also acts as the reference price used to compare market offers (AER).
Here is the part that makes the whole thing smell. In New South Wales, residential flat-rate DMO bills are down 3.4% to 5.0%. In South East Queensland, residential flat-rate DMO bills are down 7.2%. Small business flat-rate DMO bills are down 9.0% to 11.3% in NSW and 10.4% in South East Queensland (AER).
South Australia is messier. Residential flat-rate DMO bills are up 1.4%, but small business flat-rate DMO bills are down 6.8%, and time-of-use offers move differently again (AER).
So no, this is not a neat “all power bills should go down” story. That would be too easy. It is worse than that. It is a story about how the market is built so the punter has to do admin to avoid getting clipped.
The better deal may already exist
The AER’s January to March 2026 retail update says residential electricity customers on the median market offer can save up to 23% by switching to the most competitive offer in the market (AER).
Read that again. Not by installing a battery. Not by living in the dark. Not by showering at 3am while apologising to the grid.
By switching.
The ACCC’s advice is basically: ring your energy company and ask if a better deal is available. Ask how your plan compares with the reference price. Ask whether they have a better plan below the reference price. Use Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare if you want to compare offers properly (ACCC).
That is practical advice. It is also a confession.
If the better offer exists, and the customer has to phone up like they are begging for a secret menu item, the system is not rewarding loyalty. It is taxing it.
Victoria saw enough
Victoria has moved first on this particular rort. Renew Economy reported that the state announced an Australia-first ban on the retail energy “loyalty tax”, aimed at stopping retailers from quietly ratcheting up prices on long-term customers who originally signed up to lower offers (Renew Economy).
The new Victorian rule introduces price caps on retail plans more than four years old. Retailers have until 30 June 2027 to move affected customers onto lower rates, with penalties up to $244,212 per breach for non-compliance (Renew Economy).
The expected saving is not life-changing money, but it is real money: between 27,000 and 53,000 customers saving up to $258 a year, according to the report (Renew Economy).
Choice had already put a torch on the practice in 2025, alleging consumers were missing an average $430 a year by unknowingly sitting on a higher-cost version of their retail electricity plan (Renew Economy).
Four hundred and thirty bucks for not noticing the plan changed under your feet. Nice little earner.
The rort is the friction
This is the bit that makes people cranky, because it is not just the price. It is the little admin maze around the price.
The retailer can advertise the better deal. The bill can mention the reference price. The comparison site can exist. The regulator can publish the update. The advice can tell you to ring up.
And the customer still has to find the time, read the bill, understand the plan, compare the reference price, call the company, sit through the hold music, ask the right question, and hope the person on the other end does not bury the answer in terms and conditions.
Meanwhile, if you do nothing, the machine keeps eating.
That is the business model. Not always in one grand villain speech. Usually in small boring steps. A plan name here. A July 1 reset there. A better offer that technically exists, but does not exactly kick your front door in to introduce itself.
It is not always illegal. It is not always simple. It is not even the same in every state.
But the shape is familiar: ordinary people pay the complexity tax while the company gets to call it choice.
What the punter can actually do
This is not financial advice. It is admin advice, which is worse.
If you are in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania or the ACT, the ACCC points people to Energy Made Easy. If you are in Victoria, use Victorian Energy Compare. You can also ring your current retailer and ask bluntly: am I on your best offer, and how does it compare with the reference price? (ACCC)
If you are in hardship, on a payment plan, or carrying debt, the ACCC says to work with your current retailer, because switching can affect protections and debt arrangements (ACCC).
That caveat matters. The whole thing should not depend on who has the spare hour, the confidence, the language, the paperwork, or the patience to chase the better number.
Power is not a luxury watch. It is the fridge, the kettle, the lights, the laptop, the fan, the heater, the machine that keeps the joint running.
If the cheaper plan exists, making people beg for it is not customer service.
It is a loyalty tax with hold music.
Yeh nah.