Members of Anthony Albanese’s welfare working group are pushing Labor to end its $6.8 billion power bill rebates and instead funnel taxpayer money into solar panels and renewable batteries for poorer Australians. Source: The Australian.
Economists, including those on the Prime Minister’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee – which itself has called for radical welfare spending in the past – want the rebates scrapped.
However, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has refused to rule out extending them beyond the end of the year, saying: “From budget to budget, we see if we can do more.”
The one-year, $300 rebate announced in last year’s Budget was set to expire on June 30 but will be extended to the end of this year, adding $150 in support for every home in the country.
Mr Chalmers said the highest priority of the Labor Government in the first term was to get on top of inflation and that “electricity bill rebates are an important part of that”.
While the rebates have reduced headline inflation, the unwinding of state government rebates led to a spike of 16.3 per cent in electricity prices in the first quarter of this year, adding 0.30 percentage points to inflation.
Australian National University associate professor and member of the inclusion committee Ben Phillips said the Government had to “bite the bullet at some point and unwind these things”.
“I don’t think they should have been there in the first place, as broadly based as they were,” he said. “The full-blown energy rebates going to all households I think was a bit too strong anyway … given that we’re still concerned about physical ramifications and balancing budgets and all those sorts of things.”
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive and inclusion committee member Cassandra Goldie said the rebates had to be dropped and the money used to improve energy efficiency for struggling households.
“One-off energy bill rebates provide short-term relief but they are not a long-term solution to reduce energy costs and the cost-of-living crisis,” Dr Goldie said.
“Instead of relying on untargeted payments, we need to invest in lasting solutions like home energy upgrades, prioritising those living in social housing, private rentals, and low-income homeowners who are currently missing out.”
Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Travers McLeod, also an inclusion committee member, said he thought the energy rebates should be axed and the priority should be “targeted rather than universal relief”.
FULL STORY
Energy bill rebates must end, Anthony Albanese’s welfare experts declare (By Rhiannon Down and Matthew Cranston, The Australian)
