Daily London
The much-needed $300 power bill relief was offered to households during the 2024/25 financial year, aimed at curbing cost of living pain for Australian families.
An extra $150 subsidy was then offered to Australians from July, however Chalmers today revealed it will not be extended beyond December 31, 2025.
Chalmers acknowledged it was a tough decision to call time on the relief.
He said it was part of a government-wide shift to “permanent” cost of living measures.
“This was a difficult call that we made as a cabinet, but it’s the right call,” Chalmers said during his mid-year budget update.
“It recognises the pressures on the budget, recognises that there is more than one way to provide this cost of living relief that people still need in their household budgets.”
The treasurer said the government has forked out nearly $6 billion on the three rounds of energy bill rebates.
But he said it was not doing enough to justify the budget blow-out.
Chalmers also pointed out that he has been transparent over the temporary nature of the rebates.
“We’ve been up-front with people and said that these were never going to be a permanent feature of the budget,” he added.
“People will still be receiving very considerable cost of living help, but it will be permanent and ongoing, through the tax system and Medicare system and on the PBS.”
He reminded taxpayers that there are several tax cuts already baked into the federal tax cut.
The rebates were introduced in the 2024 federal budget, providing all households with $300 off their bills over the course of a year at a cost of $3.5 billion.
Chalmers then found an extra $1.8 billion to extend the measure in this year’s budget for another two quarters – or $150 per household – taking the total spend to more than $5 billion.
Chalmers did warn, however, that regardless of the decision made today, the rebates would eventually come to an end.
