Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has extended Labor’s energy rebate in a pre-election budget promise. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The Federal Government’s energy rebate will be extended until the end of this year to take another $150 off electricity bills, in a pre-budget, pre-election promise just announced.
With the Federal Budget to be delivered Tuesday evening (25 March) and an election due by 17 May, Labor has committed to give every household and about one million small businesses the extra automatic rebates applied in quarterly instalments.
This is in addition to previously announced rebates already being rolled out.
The budget will detail how the extension of energy bill rebates will cost $1.8 billion over the forward estimates.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will outline Treasury estimates that the measure will directly reduce headline inflation by about half of a percentage point in 2025, and reduce household bills by 7.5 per cent on average nationally.
In flagging the budget initiative, Anthony Albanese said helping the family budget was the government’s number one priority.
The Prime Minister noted that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has already shown energy bill rebates being currently rolled out with the states to have directly reduced electricity prices.
He said in 2024, electricity prices fell 25.2 per cent but would have fallen just 1.6 per cent without energy rebates.
“On Tuesday night, my government will have Jim Chalmers do our fourth budget this term. Our budget is about helping family budgets,” Mr Albanese said on Sunday.
“Labor will take another $150 right off your power bills. Two payments of $75 each for every household.
“This is cost of living relief when it’s needed, right across the country.”
Dr Chalmers described the measure as “hip pocket help” for Australians feeling cost-of-living pressures.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into the National Electricity Market will also be extended for 12 months.
The government says the ACCC’s enquiry is helping to ensure households and small businesses get fair deals from their energy retailers.
Energy reforms will help consumers to switch between energy plans to secure the best value for money, Mr Albanese said, and remove excessive fees and charges.
They will also ensure people get the concessions they are entitled to, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars per year.
“We are providing immediate relief on energy bills now while we continue to progress the overdue reform needed to deliver the modern, affordable and reliable energy grid Australians deserve,” Mr Albanese said.
For its part, the Opposition is waiting to see what is in the budget before detailing any further how the Coalition will provide long-term energy cost relief.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said there was “no ambiguity” that the Coalition would cut government spending.
“We’re making promises we know we can afford, but we’re going to see what is in the budget and how much headroom there is,” Mr Taylor told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
With nuclear energy, government spending, cuts to the public service and migration numbers key Coalition policies heading into the election, Mr Taylor suggested specifics are still to be finalised.
He stressed, however, that public service jobs remain very much in the Coalition’s sights and could see a Peter Dutton-led government sack even more than the 36,000 employees it has already said will go.
“We don’t know how many positions Labor has put in place. We’ll find out more in the budget,” Mr Taylor said.
“The last number we had was 36,000. It’s been growing more, we know that.
“What we’ve been clear about is we want to get back to where we were when we were last in government.
“That shouldn’t be in areas of frontline services. It should be in the back office areas.”
The Prime Minister later said the comments reveal that the Opposition doesn’t understand what public servants actually do.
“The idea that there are people sitting around in Canberra doing nothing shows how out of touch Peter Dutton is,” Mr Albanese said.
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