The government has promised energy rebates are only a temporary measure to help households while the bigger project of “rewiring the nation” takes place, as the government faces criticism from independents for not focusing on the root cause of high energy bills.
“We have put a lot of effort and a lot of money into supporting households with this energy transition. And the big part of that has been rewiring the nation,” said Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, while adding that the temporary relief was “important”.
Senator David Pocock.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“[We’ve been] making sure that we have an energy grid that can take renewables into it, and we’ll see more of that,” she told ABC News Breakfast.
But Independent senator David Pocock said that while the $150 will be welcome in households, it was just a “Band-Aid” when the government “could be dealing with the root cause here”.
He said there could be thousands of dollars of savings a year if we helped ourselves electrify by encouraging solar and battery.
“We know there are big barriers for many households to doing that, and what we need from the government is a bit more vision.”
While it’s rumoured that there could be an announcement on electrification in tomorrow’s budget, Gallagher didn’t confirm or deny the suggestion, only saying that Labor had made “a huge amount of investment” into electrifying the energy system.
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