In Australia, prepayment is ubiquitous in remote First Nations communities but is rarely used or banned in other locations.

Prepayment for household electricity services disrupts energy access by privatising the risks of disconnection within vulnerable households, justifying critical appraisal of the rationalisations and policy settings for its use.

Despite a growing literature documenting the potential harms of prepay and its concentration in remote and predominantly Indigenous households, these issues have received limited attention in Australian energy policy debates.

To progress the policy discourse, this qualitative study examines the policy origins and dominant rationales for use of prepay in different parts of Australia using causal process tracing.

Drawing on an original dataset of over 1650 publicly accessible documents from the period 1973–2023, a chronology is established showing that prepay systems were first introduced in remote Indigenous communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory with subsequent use in varying contexts in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.

Policy motivations differ between grid interconnected regions and remote Indigenous settlements.

In interconnected regions, prepay emerged as a voluntary product associated with competitive retail market reforms and was subject to varying degrees of regulation but is now either banned or no longer offered by retailers.

By contrast, in remote and some urban Indigenous communities prepay endures as a default or mandatory payment system – highlighting how settler colonial energy policies have consistently prioritised supply-side objectives within under-served communities subject to past and present injustices including pervasive energy insecurity.

Author: Sally Wilson, Disrupting household energy rights: Examining the policy origins of prepayment for electricity services in Australia, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 124, 2025,

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Remote communities often receive significantly reduced levels of public services compared to the rest of Australia. In addition, often these communities are not connected to Australia’s interconnected electricity systems and are not covered by the same regulatory and policy frameworks designed to protect consumer interests. In particular, remote First Nations communities often receive lower public service levels and consumer protections to those provided to other parts of Australia.

For many remote First Nations communities, increasingly regular temperature and climatic extremes are exacerbating energy insecurity issues.

In addition to the issue of regulatory disparities, other arrangements for the current supply of electricity in remote First Nations communities means that members of these communities are unable to participate in and benefit from Australia’s energy transition - e.g. to access the economic
(and associated cultural, health, education and wellbeing) benefits associated with household solar and battery.

Our submission to the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia’s Inquiry into Energy, Food and Water Security offers three recommendations, including:

1. Ensure the proper implementation and resourcing of the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy so it can achieve its objectives, including through regular reporting at Energy Ministers’ meetings on the steps taken to implement the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy and progress towards meeting its objectives.
2. Ensure that energy systems in First Nations communities are designed to best meet, at least cost to First Nations community members, the economic and social needs of First Nations community members - and which enables First Nations community members to participate in and benefit from Australia’s energy transition.
3. Ensure that First Nations community members/energy consumers in remote locations are protected by equivalent regulatory and policy frameworks that support and protect energy consumers in more populous parts of Australia.

Read our submission here

Access to energy is a fundamental right. Yet land critical to Australia’s aspirations for becoming a green energy superpower are among the worst served by today’s electricity retail regulations.

Australia’s remote landscapes soak up some of the highest levels of solar irradiation on the planet. And as they also attract increasing interest in the renewable energy bonanza, Indigenous landowners are positioning to power up their communities and a brighter, cleaner future. Jordyn Beazley reports.