Smart meters, the right to choose

GREATER Dandenong councillor Peter Brown is calling on the State Government to make smart meters optional, and hopes to find legal grounds to stop their installation.
Support for the council’s opposition to the digital devices inundated the Star after our report on 28 February that the council would look into the cost of electromagnetic and radiation testing and write a letter to the Energy Minister about health and safety concerns.
City of Greater Dandenong obtained legal advice that customers must provide free and unrestricted access to metering equipment or risk having their electricity disconnected.
But Cr Brown said there’d be an occupational health and safety case to argue if the levels recorded through the testing proposed for council sites were unacceptable.
“All other consumers would have a legal right,” he said.
“The support (for the council’s opposition) needs to be interpreted by the State Government as a huge level of community concern about the privacy and safety issues attached to the metres.
“The best result, I think, would be to give the consumer the right to choose.”
But some residents, like Fred Menzies from Dandenong North, objected to their rates being “misused in this futile exercise”.
“We have had a smart meter for years and there is absolutely no so-called after-effects,” he said.
“I also know a number of my friends and relatives who have smart meters and are very happy with them.”
A Department of Primary Industries (DPI) spokesman said strict safety regulations covered smart meters and Victorians could be confident they were safe.
“Independent testing has shown that electromagnetic signals from smart meters are a tiny fraction of the safe levels set by authorities and are lower than many other common household devices, such as cordless phones and baby monitors,” he said.
The State Government has established www.dpi.vic.gov.au/smartmeters for concerned consumers.