Almost $15 billion in cost of living relief over four years will be at the centre of the Albanese government's second budget, but a key element — electricity bill relief — is being criticised as insufficient and short-lived.
The $14.6 billion package over the forward estimates includes $1.5 billion in electricity bill relief for more than 5 million households and a further 1 million small businesses.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the government had also identified $17.8 billion in spending it would re-prioritise, including the previously announced $7.8 billion in response to the Defence Strategic Review.
Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) CEO Cassandra Goldie said while the one-off electricity bill relief was welcome it would not go far enough for those on the lowest incomes.
"Trying to spread those dollars through to over 6 million recipients would lead to very small amounts of money, could just be a few hundred dollars and for people who are on very low incomes that's just not going to be enough," Ms Goldie said.
"For people on very low incomes we've seen them having to take extreme measures to try and cover the ongoing costs of their energy bills.
"We need something which isn't one off and certainly it won't cut it for people that are in this kind of situation.
"We've got to see that substantial increase to income supports, particularly JobSeeker and Youth Allowance and also some more long-term measures to start to drive down the size of energy bills."
Pensioners, small businesses, and those on income support will have their bills subsidised by up to $500, with the size of the assistance dependent on which state and territory the recipient lives in.
Bills continue to increase despite temporary assistance
October's federal budget forecast a 56 per cent increase to electricity bills over 18 months.
Melbourne hair salon owner Caterina Di Biase said her bills had already soared 20 per cent.
"We use a lot of power in our business from lights, hair dryers and dryers to wash and dry the towels and it's not something that we can cut costs on," Ms Di Biase said.
"Our usage is high and we're going into our peak season for power usage.
"It's not going to get rid of the expense. It's there and it's increasing.
"You have to budget ahead and if you get a bonus well that's a bonus, but you still have to budget with it increasing.
"Thank you but you can't alter your budget on that."
Greens call for gas tax changes to go further
Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Sunday confirmed oil and gas companies would pay an additional $2.4 billion in Petroleum Resource Rent Tax on their offshore liquefied natural gas projects over the next four years.
The additional revenue will be raised from July 1 with deductions to be capped at 90 per cent rather than allowing companies to fully write off their project costs against income.
Mr Chalmers challenged the Greens to support the changes, saying that opposing them would be to prevent higher tax revenue.
Greens Leader Adam Bandt said there was room for further improvement.
"The tax is broken and if it was fixed properly that's an extra $95 billion over a decade (according to Parliamentary Budget Office costings) that could go to delivering real energy bill relief," Mr Bandt said.
"Australia's gas tax is fundamentally broken and that means everyday people are going to lose out.
"If the legislation comes to the Senate the Greens will push to improve it to ensure that gas corporations pay their fair share of tax to fund the services Australians expect because at the moment Labor is letting them off the hook."
