Australia is a world leader in per-capita deployment of rooftop solar PV with more than three million households realising benefits including reduced energy bills and improved energy security.

However, these benefits are unevenly distributed. Research shows First Nations residents of public housing in remote Australia using prepay metering experience frequent ‘self-disconnection’ from energy services, a known indicator of energy insecurity.

Upfront capital costs and an absence of local regulations codifying the ability to connect solar PV have long locked out these households from realising benefits of energy transition in regions host to world class renewable energy generation potential.

This article describes early experiences of those residents among the first to install and grid-connect rooftop solar to prepay in Australia’s remote Northern Territory.

In addition to reduced electricity expenditures, rooftop solar PV mitigates experiences of energy insecurity through reducing the incidence of involuntary ‘self-disconnection’ due to inability to pay.

Support for rooftop solar for prepay households can alleviate frequent exposure to disconnection, bringing multiple co-benefits.

Policy responses should focus on reducing barriers to realising the benefits of rooftop PV for priority communities, including First Nations families living in public housing using prepay.

Authors: Bradley Riley, Lee V. White, Simon Quilty, Thomas Longden, Norman Frank Jupurrurla, Serena Morton Nabanunga & Sally Wilson (2023) Connected: rooftop solar, prepay and reducing energy insecurity in remote Australia, Australian Geographer, DOI: 10.1080/00049182.2023.2214959

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Increasing demand, innovations in technology, and extensions to electricity grid infrastructure are likely to lead to a growth in renewable energy development on native title land and water.

The likelihood that native title holders and claimants will benefit from this development will depend in part upon the legal regime that governs native title.

The prevailing legal regime governing renewable energy development on native title land and water involves two principal alternatives to permitting development: voluntary land use agreements and compulsory government acquisition of native title.

While the procedures associated with these alternatives afford native title holders and claimants more procedural protection than some commentators have suggested, they fail to attain the standard of ‘free, prior, and informed consent’ prescribed by international best practice and the philosophical and moral arguments that underpin that standard.

To remedy this failure, the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth) should be amended to place less weight on economic and similar considerations when authorising the compulsory acquisition of native title for renewable energy development, or prohibit the compulsory acquisition of native title generally, except for in certain exceptional circumstances.

While this paper focuses on renewable energy in particular, a number of its conclusions could apply to issues that attenuate native title generally.

Author: Maynard, G. (2022), Renewable energy development and the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth): The fairness of validating future acts associated with renewable energy projects (Working Paper No. 143/2022), Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University

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Thanks for use of the photo by Angie Warren on Unsplash

The 2019–20 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires were unprecedented in their size, scale, and devastation. It was widely acknowledged that the bushfires disproportionally impacted Aboriginal people both in terms of the population of people affected, and the deep impact felt as people connected to the land.

Yet at the height of the crisis, stories emerged of culturally unsafe and unwelcoming relief and recovery services, as well as the uneven responses of emergency services to safeguard and protect cultural heritage.

The rupturing of these demographic faultlines exposed Aboriginal people to additional risk and created a distinct Aboriginal experience within the larger bushfire catastrophe – a disaster within a disaster.

In response, Aboriginal communities and their organisations rallied, evacuating community members, providing immediate relief and support to communities and families affected, and taking their own steps to protect their cultural and heritage values.

This paper by Associate Professor William Fogarty (2022) brings together these stories, captured through various media articles, reports, submissions and testimony, synthesising the common experiences of Aboriginal peoples and the response of their communities and organisations. It draws attention to deep constitutions of strength and resilience embedded within Aboriginal communities, whilst highlighting the trust deficit now engendered between Aboriginal people and relief and recovery agencies.

It finishes by reaffirming the importance of community-controlled and representative Aboriginal organisations in emergency management, response, and recovery in future disasters.

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