Qld will hand out $2b in power bill rebates but the cash splash has raised questions

The news

Queensland social service groups are questioning if the state government’s $1000 power bill rebate headed to every household from July 1 risks sucking up budget cash that could be used to better target help to those who need it most.

While broadly welcoming the measure, the Queensland Council of Social Services and St Vincent de Paul Society made the comments in submissions to a fast-tracked bill to allow the government access to the extra $2.2 billion needed to roll out the automatic rebates on resident’s bills.

“We’ve put all of it into this one initiative,” Premier Steven Miles said of the rebates in relation to much-touted help coming in the state budget.Credit: Fairfax Media

“The society takes this opportunity to make clear our concerns regarding the potential impact of this measure … on the state’s capacity to fund much needed additional cost-of-living measures,” Vinnies state chief executive Kevin Mercer wrote.

Other submissions suggested whether the approach was likely to lift or help keep inflation high (the state and federal governments say it does the opposite) and more about “electoral gain” rather than addressing cost-of-living pressures.

Why it matters

Premier Steven Miles and his deputy, Treasurer Cameron Dick, have been foreshadowing big help for such pressures in the upcoming budget since the leadership handover in December – and ahead of a key state election in October.

On Friday, Miles told journalists the rebates would be “the big one” and that while there would be other measures in the June 11 budget “we’ve put all of it into this one initiative”. Some concession-holders are also eligible for an existing $372 rebate.

The rebate is almost double the size of those handed out last financial year amid rising power bills which are still low compared to other states, and is viewed as such a key initiative by the government that it has been tracking the public’s knowledge.

The state LNP have argued the rebates are only necessary because the state has the “highest power prices in the nation”, while one Queensland-based federal member has described it as “economic vandalism”.

What they said

In his submission, Mercer welcomed the boosted measure but said the organisation was concerned the rebates were not sufficiently targeted and represented “a subsidy to all Queenslanders including those with the ability to absorb higher energy costs”.

He urged the government to also streamline access to existing hardship and rebate measures, along with broader cost of living support for vulnerable residents on items such as food and fuel or back-to-school expenses for low-income families.

QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh warned that energy customers whose homes aren’t separately metered or who don’t receive a separate power bill – where it is included in their rent, for example – won’t be eligible.

Neither would people experiencing homelessness or living in supported accommodation. “Our view is that the cost-of-living relief should be more targeted to vulnerable households,” McVeigh said.

Former federal Treasury official and Adept Economics director Gene Tunny also questioned whether the rebate should be means tested.

Australian Institute of Progress executive director said the size and timing of the rebate suggested the aim was for “electoral gain”.

Another point of view

Appearing before a parliamentary committee examining the bill, Under Treasurer Michael Carey said the federal government held the income details needed to means-test payments and was unlikely to provide them.

Doing this would also add a “very significant administrative overhead”.

Carey said there were existing processes for passing rebates to people living in manufactured home parks, and the fewer than 5 per cent of Queenslanders who change electricity providers in any quarter.