‘Billions of dollars’: Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlines changes to help Aussies with cost of living

Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlines the changes coming into effect today that will help “every Australian up and down the income scale”.

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No matter who you are, where you live, what you do for a living or how much you earn, we’re doing what we can to help you with the cost of living.

We recognise that people are under pressure. I see it in my own community and right across the country and we’re doing something about it.

From today, billions of dollars’ worth of relief will begin to roll out to millions of Australians to help ease the cost of living.

Starting today, every taxpayer will get a tax cut, every household will get an energy rebate and a million small businesses will get energy bill relief.

Around 2.6 million workers on modern award minimum wages will get a 3.75 per cent pay increase.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

More than two million families will benefit from the latest round of indexation to family tax benefit and other family payments, while pensioners will benefit from indexation of income and asset thresholds.

Australians will soon get access to cheaper medicines, so no one will pay more than $31.60 for a PBS medicine and concession card holders will only pay $7.70.

People will start to accrue more money for their retirement with the superannuation guarantee to increase from 11 per cent to 11.5 per cent.

About 876,000 people on income support payments will get a helping hand with social security deeming rates to be frozen for another year.

And new parents will get an extra two weeks of paid parental leave, with an extra two weeks added each year until they reach 26 weeks total by July 2026.

That’s how you deliver cost of living relief, not with nuclear reactors that will only push up the price of power.

At the same time as we’re rolling out this extra relief, we’re doing our bit in the Budget to fight inflation through responsible economic management which has seen us turn big Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses.

Importantly, Treasury estimates the government’s energy bill relief and additional increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance will directly reduce inflation by half of a percentage point in 2024–25 and are not expected to add to broader inflationary pressures.

Mr Chalmers says Labor is helping every Australian up and down the income scale. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

If the Coalition cared at all about easing the cost of living for Australians, they would have voted for cost-of-living relief in the Parliament but instead they voted against it.

Peter Dutton wants Australians to work longer for less, but we take a different approach.

We think that every Australian deserves a bit of help and that’s what we’re delivering.

Our economic plan is all about helping Australians earn more and keep more of what they earn which is why our focus is on growing real wages and easing the cost of living through tax cuts for every taxpayer and energy rebates for every household.

We’re helping every Australian up and down the income scale because we know that every Australian has been impacted by the cost of living.

Whether you’re a truckie, a tradie or a teacher, from Logan to Launceston, Western Sydney to Western Australia, Wentworth to West Footscray – more cost-of-living help is coming your way from today in the form of energy rebates, tax cuts and more.

Only Labor cares about easing the cost of living for Australians and only a Labor government will back Australians with the cost of living relief they deserve, with more on the way starting today.

Jim Chalmers is the Federal Treasurer of Australia

Originally published as ‘Billions of dollars’: Treasurer Jim Chalmers outlines changes to help Aussies with cost of living