An article in the Herald Sun on Friday 12th April has caused uproar with Victorian households and angry responses in letters to the editors that followed.
If we allow Power Companies and the Government to get there way, they will have control of your airconditioner or heater, but where does this stop.
Can we trust this level of control in the hands of the same people whom still deny the scientific evidence that RF Devices can be harmful to Humans.
“Manufacturers of airconditioners, water heaters, pool pumps and electric car chargers would be required to offer “smart appliances” that were capable of being “cycled” on and off during the peak demand times – with customer permission.”
“An Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee consultation paper proposes that appliances sold after June next year have mandatory “interfaces” that could be activated to communicate with the electricity network.”
In response to the article in the Herald Sun, Nick McCallum from Channel Seven News ran a television news segment the very same evening which featured Sonja Rutherford from the Broadmeadows Progress Association.
The Herald Sun article can be found here.
The Channel 7 News segment can be found here.
Stop Smart Meters Australia 
The problem with ‘altnerative’ energy businesses is that – in Australia at least – they’re just as greedy as electricity companies and politicians.
I’d prefer to look outside the square at something far more DIY, like Doug Coulter is doing over in Floyd, Virginia. A very clever man, that one, with a heart for freeing all of humanity (not just a few) from the clutches of corporate and political greed and monopolies.
This crap will keep happening in Australia as long as Aussie just keep having a ‘whinge’ but do absolutely nothing about it – they’re essentially saying, “oh ok, go ahead and screw us over – we’ll whinge and moan about it for a while but you KNOW we’ll bend over and take as much as you want to dump on us”. Because Aussies are a bit pathetic like that.
Take matters into your own hands. The sun is free. Daylight is free. Do something about it – QUIETLY – keep your mouth shut until you’ve actually succeeded, and THEN show others how to do the same for themselves but do it en masse, so that millions know about it at once.
Also worth bearing in mind is that ultimately, whatever you come up with is useless if the poorest of the poor don’t have the way and the means to replicate it.
Here’s my take on it as an electrician. I think it’s a good idea as long as when the power company’s turn certain things back on, and it’s in a off peak type time frame, the cost of producing the electricity at this time will be cheaper. These costs need to be passed on to the user, directly via smart meters with this function. Incentives are not enough. We want direct real time savings, much like how the stock market or currency is always fluctuating. There should be some mind of app or display that shows on your television how much a unit of electricity is at the moment etc too. And why power company’s have the option to control your stuff to save you money, this should always be able to be overridden by the user, so that if you want your aircon on, you can have it on.
Can someone direct me to a good site outlining the best totally solar powered energy system to put in please? One that gives off the least amount of EMR? The letter I received from Powercor when I wrote to them telling them I didn’t consent to the SM installation kept using the phrase: “You WILL have one installed”. This is corporate fascism. And for anyone who has already had one installed….remember…..they made you PAY to have the thing put in THEREFORE IT IS NOW YOUR PROPERTY NOT THEIRS! Onward and upward!
Damn Right Jay! Now remote gas meters are being rolled out as well here in Victoria… google Envestra. Never give in to Tyranny and Corporate GREED.
Alternative Power Systems and MacFarlane Generators can both set you up to be completely off grid. Get a quote from both.
You can achieve the least amount of EMR by locating the ‘inverter’ at least 3 m from bedrooms/living rooms and having no control panel inside the house. Can also consider placing panels on garage roof if possible, instead of roof of the house.
@Freddie. Thanks. I will investigate them and report my findings.
@Freedom Rules.Yes, remote gas meters are planned as are remote water meters. Time to get self sufficient folks! Good luck!
I would like to see a revolution in this country. I truly wish people would arc up and stand up in droves to say ‘enough!’.
I will be at the march. I may feel useless and voiceless, however I am still able to walk.
That’s the spirit! Why should Australians be told we have ‘no choice’ when places such as the U.K. and the Netherlands are able to opt-out? They can stick their STUPID SMART GRID!
It’s simply a step toward Carbon-Communism, where they want to allocate carbon credits and if you don’t use them they are forfeited, or if you run out for the week your power will go off as a bad world-citizen. All levelled on the Global-Warming swindle from Bankers and Untied Nations.
Singapore Power companies are now actually implementing Prepaid Electricity Meters operated by plastic cashcards
http://sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/92107
I agree with every word Jason’s said. Whenever we are told something is for our own good you can be sure that it is for the good of someone else or some organisation, not for you. “For your convenience” has become a useful catchphrase and is so overused that you’d think it would make it obvious as a tool of manipulation, but apparently not) We need to keep awake or we’ll be toast!
The facility for turning our appliances off and on during peak periods is nothing to do with lowering our electricity bills. It’s all to do with reducing usage when THEY decide we should. What we should be dealing with is reducing populations all over the world to make the world safer and pleasanter to live in. Remote control of us all. “1984” and “Brave New World” have arrived!!
John and Sonia – I spoke with a friend of mine today – her name is Val and she is a Officer in the Salvation Army and she will be in Melbourne the day of the March and wants to attend. She will get the infprmation of this Website. Cheers Pam 🙂
I have the same concern re these WIFI’ed appliances but am wondering if this aspect can be disabled for those of us who don’t have the smart meter for them to communicate with –will they still be transmitting mindlessly through our homes ??? I am buying older appliances (eg fridge and washing machine) as spares and am lucky I have a bit of space to store them–have to live with clutter.
Brenn…here is a previous link from SSMA which spells out the details of these appliances which are already being sold in the US https://stopsmartmeters.com.au/2013/04/03/buyer-beware-rf-appliance-warning/
This wireless tech really scares me, I see so many people loving the pay and wave tech on their cards, I always tell them they are very trusting of that tech and that I wouldn’t use it, even people who move their cards around a little before swiping or inserting have suddenly found the transaction has been approved and they are dumbfounded as to how it happened. I try and tell my kids get away from wireless as much as you can as they are in the midst of it all, touch phones, facebook on call etc, phones always on or near their person. Luckily their are still people who can realise this wireless tech is all about money for the providers. We cannot give up the right to be able to choose, but here I am already preaching to the converted. Linda Reid
Hi Linda,
Did you realize that WiFi is now in all schools including Primary schools. Our kids will be exposed to WiFi though out their Primary, Secondary and University years. Its just not possible to avoid and I wish we could go back to simple living but the reality is it wont happen. I too am against all this new technology and am afraid of what we are exposing our children too. In fact I am one of many who has fallen ill too all these Smart Meters that we are now surrounded with, thanks to our un-educated, money hungry evil Government and Power companies…
Yes, no wonder people like me are considering Home Schooling… bugger what the Vic Govt thinks. If they REALLY cared about our kids, there would have been research done on the subject BEFORE exposing them to this crap on a daily basis and pretending to wonder why they aren’t performing ‘up to standard’. Evil Education Dept. as well!
Yes, also with home schooling the children may actually learn relevant stuff such as punctuation, correct thinking and other communication skills so they have the inspiration to get interested in shaping society together with the ability to communicate their complaints.
Those of us who are waking up to the true agenda, which is an attack on god-aligned humanity via Smart Meters, etc, would see how the dumbing down of society works to achieve that.
Maybe morals too
I see people are starting to realise the real agenda
But not only ‘control’: they’ll be programmed to deduct the accumulated ‘fees and charges’ electronically, from your bank-account, because all this stuff will be linked to operate automatically, since everybody’s been sucked into channelling ALL their money through banks/plastic cards. And they’ll also deduct a fee for the ‘service’ they provide!
….and this is only the start. The real ambition goes much further, including monitoring (and recording) every word said (sound made?) in your house via the same circuitry, keeping track of people who come and go (for ‘security’ reasons, of course) and automating all your interfaces with the State and State-franchised institutions. (eg. private power/water/debt-collection/ highway-tollway builders/managers, and even the ATO and Centrelink) now that they’ve got EVERYbody on their databanks etc etc etc. They’ve already started mass-recording of people’s faces via ‘facial-recognition’ technology applied to large crowds, public transport and traffic on major roads.
…..Already in some places they’ve started to microchip people (“for their own benefit”, of course) and can track them by satellite. The next step will be to SEND subliminal messages TO the chipped individual via the same system in order to control and condition them entirely.
In the end, of course, all these systems will be linked and Orwell’s ‘1984’ will be a reality that nobody even bothers to deny; and will even applaud as a good thing.
(Read ‘Brave New World).
PS…and the copout that you’ll be able to save money on your bills is a furphy.
If you DO use less they’ll simply jack the price up ~ as they announced this week that from July this year your water bills will increase by 30+%
I agree with what you are saying Jason but people will think that you are crazy, a radical, or just plain ignorant of the government’s plan for our greater good. It’s called ‘SUSTAINABILITY’ and it will cost us everything we now hold dear (especially freedom) and make those leading the way more rich and more powerful. I will not give in to them and I will keep on fighting for our freedom like everyone else on stopsmartmeters.
Unfortunately, Jason is quite correct! Read Baroness Susan Greenfield’s (a UK neuroscientist) book titled ‘Tomorrow’s People’. Such a doomsday scenario is already happening. Smart meters are the Trojan Horse that will let a 3rd party into our homes and once in, there will be no mechanism to go back. Once we give up our right to privacy and freedom, our lives will never be the same again. It will be the legacy we leave to our children. Passive resistance is better than nothing – best to live with few, old appliances, best to have to make our own electricity with solar panels and batteries. The alternative is unthinkable. Thank-you to Sonja for speaking the truth to those who are willing to listen.
Hi Freddie.
I’ve never read ‘Tomorrow’s People’, but I often advise people to read George Orwell’s ‘1984’. His writing style is fairly ponderous (which may be deliberate to suit the subject-matter and plot) but you’ll see the parallels with today’s police-state mentality straight away…and that’s only what we actually KNOW about it.
—> “Who Controls the past controls the future
Who controls the present controls the past”
But the kicker is this:- Also read Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’, and you can’t miss the parallels between that and our current Nanny-State mentality which permeates ALL levels of society. (eg Dependence on Centrelink, one way or another.)
Then finally, overlap the themes of both books…and you’ll be horrified about how accurately they describe our world today.
Here’s an outline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
If you don’t reckon we’re there yet…start counting the days!
” War is peace.
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength.”
Wow. I knew the stink of this process was making me ill, yet I didn’t know exactly how rotten things were.
I’m the only one in an apartment buiulding of 15 that still has an old analogue meter. I ended up in an argument with a tradesperson a few weeks back – well it was me stating a whole lot of information at him and him telling me too bad. I started recording the incident as I felt my privacy was being invaded and I was out right being bullied. He came to my door and told me,’I’m just here to let you know that we’re turning off your electricity now and it won’t be going back on until you let us into your home to check the meter’. I truly couldn’t believe it. Who the hell was this guy and how could he do that? All of my choice as a consumer, person, citizen was taken away. I received threatening calls from Citipower telling me I had no choice. Communication with the Ombudsman resulted in the same – as well as telling me they could turn off my electricity if they wanted to, I had to let them change the meter even if I didn’t want to. I contacted the federal government and they requested information as to why I thought it was a federal issue – I sent them information and the link to the PM saying we wouldn’t be forced to have one. They then replied with bucking the issue to State government who replied with the same rhetoric about it being a government ‘mandate’.
I contacted the consumer law centre who said I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to keep my electricity on and the free local law centre at St.Kilda Community Centre on Chapel Street, said the power company may just turn off my electricity and then forget about me for a few months – so I’d be without and no way to alter it. I asked her about the rules governing electricity being an essential service and thus how could I be cut off etc and I gained no direct answer except it’s best to let them put one in if I wanted to keep my electricity on – the power distributor – in my case Powercor/Citipower- has the right to turn it off. I walked away from that appointment thinking the lawyer did not have my best interests at heart. Do they serve the public or the corporations? I was given the impression this lawyer was there to help ME. I have read where the incompetent member of parliament said it was cheaper to keep putting the meters in instead of stopping and I have witnessed the complacency of my neighbours first hand in letting it go through without question and earnestly believing that ‘we don’t have a choice anyway’. What the hell is going on in this country?
I have had enough of this tyranny. I feel powerless at this stage, as if my voice means nothing.
I am disgusted. I would like to see every last politician thrown out and people who actually care about their fellow Australians put in.
I was born in Australia and I am glad of this. That does not mean I agree with the rules and BS these current parliamentarians have come up with. They are more interested in their party politics than representing the peoples interest.
I don’t know if you guys have read this comment or found the below information about ‘Your will be done’. I hope you get to read the latter.
Thank-you all for the information. This country is going to hell in a hand-basket and how are we suppose to defend ourselves? We seem to be placated and fattened by being told we have it good, while all the while those parliamentarians and their privately employed cronies are ripping our rights as humans away from us.
Anyway that’s my 2 cents today. Here’s the link to ‘Your Will Be Done’ – fact about how to vote and what obligations each party has to each other. It is possible to vote out the current government. I can only wish that would happen.
http://www.peoplesmandate.iinet.net.au/your_will_be_done.pdf
The other thing – the local lawyer said my ‘contract’ with the power company meant zilch. The distributor can do what it wants. I said they didn’t own the meter box. SHe said that if one person has let them in to change the meter, then there is implied permission to change all of the meters and they are allowed to do so. Also she said, ‘When I had my smart meter put in, it turned out I was being undercharged for my usage. You do want to be honest and pay for what you’re actually using don’t you?’ I’m quite agog at her open use of manipulation of ones fear of being a bad person or immoral as reason to obey. Was this woman serious? I don’t appreciate being manipulated into being a ‘good citizen’ and towing the line – pat-pat-on-the-head-now-be-on-your-way etc. Absolutely disgusting behaviour.
I am left wondering if I must now study law, in order to find out what our rights really are in this country and how to stop those political pigs from removing them from us.
Wow, that person sounds very condescending. I encountered a similar ‘lady’ at my local MP’s office. She had no interest in discussing the smart meter issue and wouldn’t answer any of my questions, was generally unhelpful and I ended up asking her if she had actually had one installed herself, to which she replied “I don’t have to tell you anything!” Then I was speaking to some guy at the council who didn’t have a smart meter yet but looked forward to them being installed in his area. Told him what I know to be true and wished him lots of LUCK with his new ‘smart’ meter…just a couple of my non-responses from people who could not care less. All I can say is live the life you want – with as little interference from these do-gooders as possible… Tread your OWN PATH!
WE NEED TO SAY NO TO ALL THIS WIRELESS TECH AND GET BACK TO REAL LIFE. THIS NEW TECH WILL COST ALLOT MORE MONEY FOR ALL AND THE COMPANY IS THE ONE THAT IT WILL BE GOOD FOR. ITS ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY! THE THOUHGT OF THEM BEING ABLE TO SPY ON YOU IS ENOUGH TO GET YOU GOING. JOIN US AND SAY NO AND STOP THIS NOW. http://WWW.W4AR.COM IN THE USA IS ALSO FIGHTING..
I will never let anyone put one of these SPYING DEVICES IN MY HOME the same as I will never let a SMART METER be installed. The Government can go to hell. I pay for the electricity I use with my SAFE annalogue meter in place. I have a contract with my Energy Supplier, not with The bloody Government. This country is going or should I say GONE to the Dogs. Where has Dermocracy Gone????? Enough is Enough. I missed Sonia’s interview. Sonia expressed what we are all feeling. Make YOUR VOTE COUNT COME SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS. Quite frankly I don’t trust ANY OF THEM – EITHER STATE OR FEDERAL. They are all only their to feather their own nests and about the only thing they can agree on is what their next pay increase will be. They are a pack of mongrels through and through. When is this all going to end, so we can have some PEACE?????????????????? PAM
Hi there
All I can see here is the power company’s crawling , an the more pressure we can put on them the better !!!
Michael
For goodness sake (for want of a cruder phrase) when is all this crap going to end?
They literally want to control people’s living habits!!!!!!!!
This is worse than the strongest communist regime’s anywhere!
What on earth is going on in this country, this is not Australia, this is a FARCE!
No way will I buy an appliance like these, NO WAY will I ever have a smart meter!
GO TO HELL EACH AND EVERY PERSON, GROUP, COMPANY, ORGANISATION AND GOVERNMENT THAT WANTS TO IRRADIATE ME, SPY ON ME, CONTROL MY ENERGY USE, AND TRY AND ROB ME WITH THEIR EXORBITANT CHARGES WHILST TRYING TO DO ALL OF THESE THINGS!
screw them, i’m buying a lithium battery based off-grid solar powered electricity system and saying goodbye to them forever!
Why lithium? In my experience wet lead-acid batteries are more robust and you can ‘rejuvenate’ them to some degree. I’m very appreciative of hi-tech stuff, but in using it I still do what’s possible to avoid becoming dependent on ‘providers’ as far as possible (like people have made themselves dependent on power companies, banks, etc.) for all the the obvious reasons.
Good on you Sonja! This is what we are all feeling… It’s Big Brother alright! NOT HAPPY IN VICTORIA. This and many, many more decisions being made without public knowledge or consideration and at the publics expense every single time is SO WRONG! Get over yourselves power industry and government. We are not that stupid.