The prospect that the average household could pay more than $300 per year extra to already spiralling gas prices will add to most people’s sense of disbelief that nothing can be done about debilitating basic living costs.

The latest news from the Grattan Institute on prospective cost rises comes on top of increases of up to 61 per cent over the last five years in power costs.

For many, this will present the dilemma of either shivering through the Ballarat winter or giving up on other basics to help feed the insatiable utility dragon that haunts every household. 

As always for those on fixed incomes, whether it is the large elderly population or those grimly struggling to lead a comfortable life on welfare, this is bad news that really hits home and keeps on extracting its painful cost. 

The cause, according to the Grattan Institute report, is the growth of the gas export industry that will see the local price for gas consumption driven by rising international demand.

A burgeoning export gas industry worth a projected $60 billion a year by 2018 will have little ‘trickle-down’ comfort for those old people left with rising numbness and helplessness at home. 

How, they will wonder in their misery, can we allow an export business to flourish so profitably at the expense of those at home? On a wider scale, one of the industries to be hardest hit – according to the report – will be food processing.

Two of the major employers in the manufacturing industry in Ballarat are thus also in the firing line.

And many people will wonder what governments can do to alleviate the worsening situation. 

But despite detailing the causes and impacts, the Grattan Institute also advises against governments intervening. Promises by governments to bring down the cost of living have proved largely hollow and, despite these tantalising, shallow promises, no one has found themselves in a ‘utility clover’ following the abolition of the carbon tax.

The cost of one industry booming should not be the misery of many. 

The prevention of such an imbalance is the role of good government and, despite past promises and failures, it is certainly time for government to step up to this challenge.