Customers and advocates tell Origin Energy executives STOP THE BILL SHOCK

Customers, advocates and activists will demonstrate outside Origin Energy’s Annual General Meeting in Sydney today to call on the company to stop increasing consumer energy bills and do more to support tens of thousands of its customers that are stuck in energy debt.

• What: A demonstration outside the Origin Energy AGM in Sydney to protest how it is constantly pushing up customer bills and forcing more customers into energy debt in order to keep growing its record profits.
• Who: Stop the Bill Shock, a coalition of grassroots organisations, Antipoverty Centre, Sweltering Cities and Parents for Climate Action, alongside customers experiencing energy debt.
• When: From 9.30am, Wednesday 14 Oct 2026
• Where: W Hotel Sydney, 31 Wheat Road, Sydney

Origin Energy – which accounts for around a quarter of retail electricity and gas customers, recorded a full-year statutory profit of $1.574 billion in FY26. This mammoth profit once again came at the expense of their customers, who are being squeezed by even increasing energy bills, as the company fails to pass on the savings from lower wholesale prices generated by renewable energy.

Figures from the Australian Energy Regulator, which reports on retailer performance in NSW, SA, QLD, ACT & TAS. show that more than 121,000 Origin Energy customers had outstanding electricity bills at the end of March 2026. While the number of electricity customers on a formal hardship debt repayment plan also increased more than 40% compared to the previous year – from 31,960 to 45,576.

Stop The Bill Shock (STBS), an alliance of energy and economic justice advocates, has condemned retailers for continuing to increase electricity bills and their profit margins while hundreds of thousands of Australians are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table amidst the worsening cost of living crisis.

STBS has also previously demanded that retailers forgo a fraction of their super-profits to relieve the burden on debt-trapped households.

Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and DSP recipient Kristin O’Connell

Origin Energy has been making absolutely obscene profits over the past four years while failing to do anything to make bills affordable and provide relief to customers who are trapped in debt. Instead, they keep taking every opportunity to increase power prices and bank the savings from renewables to boost their profits and their executives’ bonuses. While at the same time, thousands of their customers are struggling to afford essentials like food, housing and healthcare.

It is not good enough to tell people who don’t have enough money to get by that the only way to lower their energy bill is reducing their already minimal energy use or “shopping around”. Not when Origin could erase the debts of its struggling customers with one swipe of a pen and a fraction of its profits.

The energy market is designed to fail us. We cannot afford for the government to keep doing nothing and hope that it fixes itself, so today we are going to send a clear message to Origin that enough is enough. It’s time for them to stop this BS and lower energy bills now.

Emma Bacon, Executive Director of Sweltering Cities said:

During extremely hot or cold weather, the ability to keep your home at a safe temperature can be a matter of life and death. But thanks to the greed of energy companies, like Origin, who continually put their shareholder profits before people, too many families are being forced to risk their health and wellbeing, simply because they can’t afford to pay to run their heating or air conditioning.

We cannot afford to wait and hope that lower wholesale power prices ‘trickle through’ to customer energy bills, when it’s very clear that these companies have no intention of ever passing them on.

That’s why we are here today to tell Origin Energy that its time is up, and we won’t let it get away with lining its pockets while so many of us are struggling to keep the lights on.

Nic Seton, CEO for Parents for Climate said:

Two years ago we asked Origin, and Australia’s other major energy retailer AGL, to show some compassion and give families struggling with debt some much-needed relief, but they prioritised their profits instead, and the number of their customers who are in debt just kept rising. That’s why we are here today, to make sure Origin takes real responsibility for the tens of thousands of Australian families that are struggling to live thanks to its greed.

Around 1.5 million Australian households have an outstanding energy bill. This is not an isolated problem, and it’s not the result of personal failure. It’s the result of a broken and unfair energy system which puts the profits of a handful of rich companies and their shareholders above the wellbeing of everyone else.

And we’ve had enough of it.

We’re calling on Origin to stop pushing Australian families to the brink by ensuring that the savings from renewable energy are passed through to energy bills and struggling households are given real support to lower their energy costs, with cancellation of outstanding debts so they can escape the debt cycle for good.

Media contact: email media at antipovertycentre.org or call/message 0413 261 362 via Signal

Background: The energy debt crisis

Stop The Bill Shock analysis of energy debt in 2025 shows Australia was in the midst of an energy debt crisis so large it is distorting the energy market and pushing up energy prices for all customers, with more than 1.5 million electricity and gas accounts in arrears at the end of 2025.

The analysis also showed that, at the end of 2025:

• In AER-monitored districts (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory), 613,000 electricity and gas accounts were in arrears.
• In non-AER-regulated districts (Victoria, WA, Northern Territory), 618,000 accounts were in arrears.
• 394,000 customers nationally were on a hardship or tailored assistance plan, with an average debt of $1616.
• The number of customers on a hardship or tailored assistance plan had increased by 19.4% since the end of 2024
• In jurisdictions monitored by the AER, the number of accounts referred to debt collection agencies has increased by 53.4% – from 29,772 at the end of 2024 to 45,666
• The total owed by customers, on a hardship plan or with a debt of 90 days or more, exceeded $700 million in AER-monitored regions.

Read the full report at: stopthebillshock.org/debt-trap