CRISIS BEGS FOR A SWIFT RESPONSE
TASMANIANS can now add a 12 per cent rise in electricity prices to the series of cost-ofliving shocks they have weathered in recent times. A slug of $220 to the family budget may not seem much, but it comes on top of others, which will mean more and more households will be finding it harder to meet the costs of everyday living.
It is not news to anyone that the cost of housing is at record levels in Tasmania. Purchase prices and rents have soared in recent years. Rising interest rates have added to the pressure, and housing now accounts for record proportions of household income.
Council rates and education expenses are on the march. At the same time, food prices have been increasing. Stories about $12 lettuces may represent the extreme end of the range, but the Bureau of Statistics consumer price index has been rising steadily for the past year, with an increase of about 5 per cent nationwide. The Reserve Bank of Australia is predicting a 7 per cent increase over the coming year. Part of that increase has been the uptick in petrol prices. The average price in Tasmania for 91 octane unleaded petrol yesterday was $2.12 per litre. Should the temporary 22.1c per litre excise relief announced in the Coalition’s last budget lapse in September, prices approaching $2.30 per litre are foreseeable.
The relief of a 5.2 per cent wage increase announced earlier in the week by the Fair work Commission will provide only temporary relief. Most other workers are locked into agreements with much lower wage rises and will be effectively going backwards.
The rising cost of living is the key challenge for the newly elected Albanese Labor government. Petrol prices and the chaos in the nation’s energy market owe their genesis to the conflict in Ukraine and will require a coordinated international response, despite Russia’s continuing intransigence. Housing costs and food prices also represent a national challenge and will require deft political action to rein in. Utility prices remain firmly within the bailiwick of the state government.
Much of the focus of relief efforts has rightly been directed on low- and fixed-income households, but the challenges extend far beyond. Many working families may not qualify for the assistance measures but are keenly feeling the pinch. Few would deny that the confluence of events has now combined to represent a cost-of-living crisis for Australians.
What is needed is recognition from governments of the magnitude of the crisis and a proportionate and timely response on finding concrete ways to assist. Without this, we will only see a decline in our standard of living in the coming months and years.