Thanks everyone, i have chosen to 'opt out' of the meter 'upgrade'.
too many horror stories on my local community facebook page.
in addition, a close friend has had to go to the energy ombudsman in NSW over smart meter billing issues.
(he won both times btw)
I don't have solar panels, i don't have batteries, my bill is around $300 per quarter, pretty much the same every quarter.
So adopting the phrase, " If it ain't broke, don't fix it' , i opted out.
AGL will probably try to pluck me over with something else, so i'm sure this will be an ongoing neverending story......