ABSTRACT

Power doesn't come for free, but who should pay the cost? On the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in northwest South Australia, Aṉangu households have not historically been billed for domestic energy consumption. The state government has recently introduced a prepayment regime, ostensibly to curb supply costs. Yet extending the norms of customer payment for domestic energy requires significant administrative labour, with limited potential to recoup costs through billing. This article asks: why is enforced commensuration preferable to the status quo? It describes the invention of household energy insecurity via policy reform, including the establishment of a ‘compensatory bureaucratic infrastructure’ of customer policies, contracts, tariffs, and concessions designed to mitigate the harms produced by the introduction of prepayment. With the status quo deemed untenable and the transition to mainstreaming customer payment apparently inevitable, the article examines how geography and race operate as organising principles for the limits of difference among citizens under late liberal government in remote Australia.

摘要

权力不是免费的，但谁应该支付成本呢？在南澳大利亚州西北部的 Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) 土地上，Aṉangu 家庭历来没有缴纳过国内能源消耗费用。州政府最近引入了预付款制度，表面上是为了抑制供应成本。然而，扩大客户对国内能源的支付规范需要大量的管理工作，而通过计费收回成本的潜力有限。本文提出的问题是：为什么强制补偿比维持现状更可取？它描述了通过政策改革造成的家庭能源不安全，包括建立客户政策、合同、关税、旨在减轻预付款带来的危害的优惠。鉴于现状被认为是站不住脚的，而且向主流客户支付的过渡显然是不可避免的，本文探讨了在偏远的澳大利亚，地理和种族如何作为限制公民差异的组织原则来运作。