EDITORIAL –
No-one is going to knock back a rebate of $300 on their energy bills, as announced in Tuesday night’s Federal Budget.
But one has to wonder if that, coupled with an increase in rent assistance for low-income earners and the previously announced tax cuts for all wage earners, will be enough to appease suffering Central Coast residents weighed down by rising costs at every turn.
The Budget has been talked-up by the Government for its cost-of-living measures, but Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor has labelled the $300 energy rebate for residents and $325 rebate for small businesses a “band aid on a bullet wound”, announced to appease voters for the Government’s failure so far to honour its pre-election promise of a $275 reduction in energy bills.
Some have labelled a 12-month ACCC inquiry into supermarkets an inadequate move to combat rising grocery costs and Everybody’s Home, the national campaign to attack the housing crisis, says the Budget will keep pushing up housing costs for Australians who are already battling a brutal housing market.
The organisation says budget measures are nowhere near enough to shift the dial on the housing crisis, which has seen constant rental vacancy rates of about one per cent on the Central Coast.
It says a rent assistance increase of 10 per cent for Centrelink recipients will provide some short-term relief but is not a lasting fix.
The Retirement Living Council says the Budget has forgotten about a large cohort of older people and the challenges associated with age-friendly accommodation and care, a situation which is sure to aggravate the Central Coast’s vast aged population.
With the next Federal Election due to be held next year, some have described the Budget’s tax cuts, rent assistance increases and energy rebates as vote sweeteners, with speculation Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could call an early election.
Will the cost-of-living relief measures in this Budget be enough to encourage struggling Coasties to return their three sitting Federal Labor MPs at the 2025 election?
Only time will tell.
Terry Collins, Editor