Anger as power bill rebate is delayed
THE federal opposition says Australians cannot wait until May to find out when power bill relief will come.
The rollout of the Government’s energy price relief plan was expected to be at the centrepiece of Jim Chalmers’ meeting with his state and territory counterparts on Friday.
The state, federal and territory treasurers were to use the first Council on Federal Financial Relations meeting to ramp up negotiations for equal contributions to the plan, which Dr Chalmers says will be a centrepiece of the May budget.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean was expected to use the meeting to call on the Albanese government to immediately deliver its share of the rebates, rather than force struggling Australians to wait, potentially until July.
Dr Chalmers has accused the NSW government of playing politics in the lead-up to the state election, but federal deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said pushing power bill relief beyond the budget was a “cop out”.
She noted the government had recalled parliament for a special sitting in December to rush through the legislation, and questioned the purpose of that if nothing was going to be done until after May.
“I don’t think that Australians are going to trust this government when it says it cares about the cost of power, energy, and the cost of their household,” she said.
The government’s energy price relief plan was rushed through parliament in a special sitting in December, after states and the commonwealth agreed to co-fund household rebates, in exchange for a cap on coal prices.
Anthony Albanese had previously promised national cabinet would finalise the final details of the plan by March, but Dr Chalmers has since suggested the deadline would be the budget in May.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government was continuing to make cost-of-living the number one priority.