Federal government cash splash means every household will receive energy bill relief this year

A $300 energy rebate is the federal budget’s key cost-of-living measure. Here’s how it will be delivered, including to households on solar.

• Victoria shortchanged $11bn in federal budget

A new $300 energy rebate for every Australian household will be drip-fed over the next financial year, with $75 taken directly off electricity bills every three months.

About one million small businesses will also get a handout, worth $325, if their electricity consumption is below a “small customer” threshold.

Households and eligible businesses will not have to do anything to get the rebate, which will be automatically applied to their power bill rather than delivered as cash in the bank.

In Victoria, 2.7m households will benefit, along with 236,000 small businesses.

Household rebates will be applied in quarterly instalments regardless of customer billing cycles.

If bills are sent quarterly, then $75 will be shaved from the total cost of your bill as the government steps in to pay part of your home’s energy cost.

This will happen four times over a year, totalling $300.

If your quarterly energy bill doesn’t total $75 — say if you have a solar system — the rebate will be credited and applied to future bills until it is exhausted.

If your billing cycle is shorter, the rebate will be applied to four bills across the year.

The rebate applies to electricity bills, not gas.

The discounts are set to be rolled out from July 1.

The relief will be welcome news for families and businesses smashed by soaring prices, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers argues it is likely to fight inflation – by as much as half a percentage point – because it reduces energy costs.

Mr Chalmers said price pain had hit hard in the past year but bills would have soared by much more if not for government intervention.

“We know Australian families and businesses have felt this pain – and that’s why we stepped in to help,” he said.

Despite the $3.5bn energy relief cash splash, most households around the country still face higher bills than when Labor came to government promising to slash bills by $275.

The federal opposition says average retail prices in each state show that even with the new Commonwealth discount, households are between $275 and $727 away from Labor’s price cut pledge.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers argues the rebates will fight inflation. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

Victoria has the smallest gap, while it is $597 in Queensland, $671 in South Australia, and between $539 and $727 in NSW – depending on a customer’s network area.

Energy prices have reached record levels over the past two years, largely due to global conflict and national energy market instability, which led to the Albanese government introducing a temporary cap on coal and gas prices.

Last year, the government introduced a $1.5bn energy bill relief package targeted mainly at low income households and small businesses.

Those payments were worth $250, which were matched by state payments of the same amount except in Victoria, which argued it had a separate bill relief scheme already in place.

This year’s Budget papers do not forecast gas and electricity price movements going forward, but describe previous hikes as “extraordinary” and suggest the worst of the crisis has passed.

Treasury documents say that the Commonwealth’s new $3.5bn energy bill relief scheme means “that nationally, household bills will be 17 per cent lower on average compared to the previous year”.

State by state breakdown

• In Victoria, 2.7m households will benefit, along with 236,000 small businesses

• In NSW, 3.4m households will benefit, along with 322,000 small businesses

• In Queensland, 2.1m households will benefit, along with 205,000 small businesses

• In Western Australia, 1.1m households will benefit, along with 90,000 small businesses

• In South Australia, 810,000 households will benefit, along with 86,000 small businesses

• In Tasmania, 256,000 households will benefit, along with 35,000 small businesses

• In the ACT, 196,000 households will benefit, along with 18,000 small businesses

• In the Northern Territory, 89,000 households will benefit, along with 11,000 small businesses

Originally published as Federal government cash splash means every household will receive energy bill relief this year