Hardship payment plans double amid cost-of-living crisis
The number of Queenslanders needing help paying their energy bills doubled last year as the fuel crisis added to cost-of-living pressures.
The number of people planning hardship payments has risen from around 18,500 to more than 37,000, according to new data from the Australian Energy Regulator.
While Finance Minister David Janetzki blamed the former Labor government for the ongoing affordability crunch, he also cited the regulator’s prediction that electricity bills in the state would fall by 10 per cent.
This will save an average of $1,035 per household next year, he said.
“Households remain under pressure, but our energy road map has shown that there are green shoots and we will continue to work to further increase downward pressure,” Janetzki told reporters on Monday.
Shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman said the rise was a damning and deeply worrying statistic.
“Every single one of them is a Queenslander or a family that can’t pay their utility bills,” he said.
Fentiman said the government had not done enough to ease cost-of-living pressures since forming government in 2024.
“Things have gotten worse in Queensland,” he said. “The cost of living is worse, the health data is worse, housing is worse and you have to ask anyone if David Crisafulli’s crime slogan is working.
“Under the Crisafulli government, we face a perfect storm of rising electricity bills, skyrocketing fuel prices and a government that doesn’t care.”
Hundreds of Brisbane commuters amid fuel crisis left the queue on suburban streets Expect buses on Monday morning as planned rail closures cause further delays on popular public transport routes.
Janetzki blamed the CFMEU for the chaos, claiming the closures were delayed by the union.
But Fentiman later said the opposition had been warning for weeks about the effects of the closures and that the chaos was caused by ineffective planning of replacement buses.
“Obviously this has nothing to do with industrial action,” he said. “This is an incompetent government that decided to close trains at one of the busiest times of the year and failed to organize replacement buses.”
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