One in five Australians live in areas that lack “basic” consumer electricity protections, new research has found. These include rules against disconnecting customers on life support or during periods of extreme hot or cold temperatures.

Remote and Indigenous communities are disproportionately energy insecure, with Indigenous communities 15% more likely to not have access to any of the five consumer protections studied. Most Australians living in the eastern states are covered by the national energy customer framework, a set of rules that include these protections.

“Many of these inequities will only become more apparent because of climate change,” said Michael Klerck, a study co-author from the Tangentyere Research Hub. “There needs to be a clear-eyed focus on reducing, or at least not entrenching, existing inequalities.”

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