For millions of Australian homes facing a significant increase in electricity rates, help is on the way.
The Australian Energy Regulator approved price hikes of up to 18% yesterday night, which is bad news for Australians dealing with increasing inflation and mortgage rates.
The increase comes on top of wholesale energy rates tripling in most states in the first quarter of 2022 and quadrupling in Queensland. The regulator highlighted the war in Ukraine, increased coal and gas costs, harsh weather, and a delay in additional system capacity as causes for the increase.
However, most Australian states have announced rebates to help households with skyrocketing power costs. Here’s Daily Mail Australia’s guide to what help is available for Aussies with their power bills.
Almost 50,000 low income households in NSW will soon be able to get up to $1,600 a year in support payments, Treasurer Matt Kean has announced.
Eligible customers facing financial hardship can receive assistance of up to $400 per application for electricity and up to $400 per application for gas bills twice a year.
North of the border, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday announced a $175 rebate, which will cost the state $385million.
The Sunshine State has the highest wholesale electricity prices across the nation.
The rebate is expected to be delivered to Queensland residents’ accounts in the second half of this year.
Victorians will receive a one-off $250 cost-of-living payment to help with energy bills from July 1 while more than one million Western Australians will get a $400 credit.
A $233 South Australian rebate is only for pensioners, seniors, veterans and low income earners.
Tasmania handed down its 2022-23 state budget this week with $186million allocated to help concession card holders manage power costs.
Households have started receiving ‘frightening’ letters from their power companies in recent days warning usage costs will jump in some cases as much as $1,200 a year for an average three-to-four person household.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen blamed the rise on ‘nine years of Liberal denial and cost’ and accused his predecessor Angus Taylor of sitting on the regulator’s report during the election campaign.
‘There are international factors at play here … but the lack of energy policy, the lack of investment in new energy, the lack of investment in renewable energy, and the lack of transmission over the last nine years means that Australians are paying more for electricity than they should be,’ he said.
Mr Bowen said the introduction of more renewable energy under the new Labor government will put downward pressure on prices.
‘The good news is that the Australian government will now have a policy to see power prices fall through investments in renewable energy, the cheapest form of energy. That’s the better news for the Australian people,’ he added.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry called on the Coalition to provide bipartisan support for the government’s new energy policy, which likely new Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton has not ruled out.
‘We’ll look at what Labor has got on the table,’ he told the Today show on Friday.
‘For the Liberal Party we want to make sure that people can afford to turn the lights on, when you turn the lights on there is actually power there.
‘I worry under this government, we’re not going to have the reliability in our energy system.’
