Opposition pledge to help with energy bill

ENERGY vouchers should be increased for low income households in a bid to combat the electricity bills crisis, Opposition Leader John Robertson said in his budget reply speech yesterday.

ENERGY vouchers should be increased for low income households in a bid to combat the electricity bills crisis, Opposition Leader John Robertson said in his budget reply speech yesterday.

Mr Robertson also said the little-used regional relocation scheme, whereby people who moved to the country received $7000 grants, should be axed for a NSW Jobs Commission.

Mr Robertson said if Labor were in power it would allocate $55 million over five years to the Energy Accounts Payment Assistance scheme to help families who could not pay their electricity or gas bill because of an emergency.

Labor would raise the value of the voucher from $30 to $40 and the maximum allowable household claim from $480 to $640 a year.

Energy Minister Chris Hart-cher accused Mr Robertson of reprising a 2009 Labor government policy that it did not go through with.

Mr Robertson called on Premier Barry O'Farrell to restore funding to the Independant Commission Against Corruption and the Police Integrity Commission after cuts of $700,000 to both organisations and he told Mr O'Farrell to get on with fixing infrastructure because he had presided over a $7.6 billion explosion in borrowings and "given NSW a mortgage but was not building a house".