African gangs in Melbourne may be attracting the headlines but a greater threat to the Australian way of life lies at the hands of Caribbean tax haven gangs and gangs of accountants in Sydney and Melbourne.

EnergyAustralia, which has paid zero tax on almost $24 billion in revenue over three years, and is owned by a company in the secretive tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, is in the throes of a media blitz to get customers to switch to “save” on their energy bills. It is worth noting that all this advertising expense goes straight on customers’ bills thanks to the way these companies are regulated.

While EnergyAustralia skived out of tax and while electricity and gas prices soared, its executives enjoyed 50 per cent pay rises.

Thankfully, as a result of this company being outed for its tax piracy, some customers are switching to other providers. Here is correspondence from one, Jim from Lindfield in Sydney, who writes:

I live in Sydney. I have been a customer of Sydney County Council then Energy Aust since 1974.

After reading your piece on Energy Aust, I decided it was time to switch suppliers. This took effect a couple of days ago. Today I had a call from EA asking whether they could help me. I told them I’d switched because I’d found out they were tax dodgers thanks to a BVI structure. The operator put me on hold while she consulted her boss.

She came back saying ownership wasn’t something she could comment on except she assured me that EA paid tax last year. I referred her to your article and offered to discuss EA’s discounts if she could refute it.

Meanwhile in the Murdoch press, EnergyAustralia has been running a shameless ad campaign, dressed up as journalism, for its claimed energy discounts as well as lobbying the Victorian government to extend the life of one of the country’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants, Yallourn.

Two stories this week: one extolling the EnergyAustralia’s magnificent discounts, “Fair Go: How to save $970 on your power bill“.

“The deal — which includes a bonus Herald Sun + digital subscription — provides fixed discounts for customers who pay on time, fixed energy usage rates and fixed daily supply charges.”

The other was a puff piece (ironically now behind the paywall) suggesting it was a great idea to extend the life of the Yallourn power plant. What was not revealed was the corporate welfare subsidies for which EnergyAustralia was lobbying.