Labor’s election pledge to reduce household electricity bills by $275 is set to be another broken promise unless the upcoming regulated price decreases by more than $1200, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says.

The upcoming draft Default Market Offer, released by the Australian Energy Regulator, will announce the ‘reference price’ for electricity bills in coming weeks for the 2024-2025 period.

“The Prime Minister must apologise to everyday Australians hit by skyrocketing power bills if there is less than a $1,238 reduction in power bills,” Dr Webster said.

“Mallee families are paying more and more under Labor, whether it be at the supermarket checkout, the petrol bowser or to keep their lights on. The Albanese Labor Government is making a habit of failing to deliver on its promises – from 24/7 Registered Nurses in Aged Care, not changing Stage 3 Tax Cuts and now on delivering cost of living relief through reduced power prices.”

Dr Webster said the impact of higher energy prices was being felt by industries as well as families.

“Mallee’s manufacturers and small businesses are being driven to the wall,” Dr Webster said.

“Mildura Fruit Juices Australia for example previously anticipated its energy costs would increase to a million dollars – forcing the company to reduce their grape intake as energy price hikes made it unviable to evaporate grapes into concentrate.”

“Labor simply does not care about the rising cost of living, instead railroading costly and unwanted wind and transmission line projects in regional areas and compromising productivity while simultaneously saddling families with higher prices to pay for this new infrastructure.

“The Coalition warned it would not be easy under Albanese and now more than ever this prediction is coming to pass."