Labor urged to provide $1,000 debt relief to low-income earners before power bills soar

Rising energy costs are expected to hit low and modest income earners hardest as winter rolls in, prompting calls for emergency relief. Photograph: Hector Roqueta Rivero/Getty Images

The Albanese government has been urged to shield those on fixed incomes from the rising cost of living by providing a $1,000 emergency energy debt relief payment, while industry leaders backed calls to boost income support ahead of a looming winter price hike.

With the government acknowledging what it calls an “inherited” but “full-blown cost of living crisis”, the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) has written to the new federal energy minister warning it is “deeply concerned about the financial pressures on people on very low fixed incomes”.