Disconnections are at record levels with 34,000 households having their power cut off last financial year, a rise of 34 per cent on the previous year.

Gas disconnections for the same period rocketed by 42 per cent to 24,000.

As the energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio acknowledged yesterday, no government can sit back and ignore such alarming figures.

So what is she going to do about it?

Her government has asked the Essential Service Commission to review the financial hardship programs adopted by energy companies in dealing with customers who have difficulty paying.

That would have to be a good start because at the moment there is obviously an issue there and these figures suggest that energy retailers are disconnecting first and asking questions later, which is absolutely unacceptable.

Businesses have a right to call in a debt, but if it means unfairly targeting vulnerable people such as the elderly or those with mental or physical disabilities or just families struggling to put food on the table then we need to look more closely at how those businesses are being run.

Evidence already indicates that some energy retailers are abusing customers with the number of wrongful disconnections in Victoria have jumped sixfold since 2010.

Adopting such a punitive and uncompromising approach to the essential service of energy provision is cruel and greedy and there is no place for such business practices in our community.

Ms D’Ambrosio has promised that the commission’s review will get to the bottom of the reasons why there are so many disconnections and look at how retailers are identifying hardship in the first place and looking at ways they can assist.

It is an important inquiry and we would hope that something comes from it, not just ideas about how consumers can reduce their energy consumption.

Retailers are exploiting loopholes in the market. There is a soft regulatory framework and confused government policy about energy provision and consumers are getting shafted at every turn.