Households are guaranteed a further $150 in energy bill rebates after the Coalition immediately matched Labor’s budget commitment, despite describing the support as a “Band-Aid to a bullet wound” of high power prices.
In a widely anticipated announcement ahead of Tuesday’s federal budget, the government confirmed on Sunday that it would extend power bill relief until the end of 2025 for all households and about 1m small businesses.
The $300 rebates announced in last year’s federal budget were due to expire on 30 June, leaving households exposed to significant power bill hikes from July without concessions.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the fresh round of relief was a recognition that households were still struggling with the cost of living.
Treasury estimated the rebates would reduce headline inflation by half a percentage point in 2025 and reduce household bills, on average, by 7.5% nationally, compared with bills without the extension.
“This is more hip pocket help for households. It recognises that even as we’ve made all of this progress on inflation together, people are still under pressure, so there’s more help being rolled out on Tuesday night,” Chalmers told Channel Nine.
“Extending these energy bill rebates for another six months recognises the pressures people are under and, in the most responsible way that we can, helps people with those pressures.”
The opposition immediately matched the $1.8bn commitment, declaring it would not “stand in the way” of help for under pressure households.
“We’re not going to stand in the way of Labor cleaning up their own mess,” the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, told ABC’s Insiders program.
“This is putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.”
Guardian Australia last week reported the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was facing internal pressure to match any cost-of-living measures in Chalmers’ budget to neutralise potentially damaging Labor attacks during the election campaign.
The Coalition has matched several of Labor’s spending commitments in the pre-election period, including its $8.5bn boost to Medicare and $570m women’s health package.
Chalmers dismissed suggestions the $150 rebates were an “election bribe” or an attempt to make up for Labor’s failure to deliver a promised $275 annual cut to power bills.
“I would describe it as hip-pocket relief for households. I would describe it as a government responding to the pressures that people still feel despite this progress that we’ve made on inflation,” he said.
The announcement comes as thousands of Australians brace for higher energy prices after 1 July, with authorities warning they would increase the maximum level energy companies can charge.
Caps on what regulators can charge households and businesses in New South Wales, South Australia, south-east Queensland and Victoria are refreshed every year. According to draft caps, residential electricity customers in NSW, South Australia and south-east Queensland will see price rises of between 2.5% and 8.9% compared with last financial year.
The government also announced that the inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into the National Electricity Market would be extended for 12 months to “ensure households and small businesses are getting a fair deal from their energy retailer”.
