Advocates warn urge Labor, energy retailers to slash energy debts amid July 1 energy bill hikes
Adelaide public housing resident Mel Fisher, 43, said she's been forced to stay in bed as a way to keep warm during bitter winter days so she can avoid using heating in her draughty, concrete, two-bedroom house.
'It's absolutely freezing. I live in public housing, so it has no insulation at all and the interior and exterior are concrete walls, so once they get cold, they stay cold,' she told NewsWire.
The Elizabeth Vale woman recently received notice from her energy provider Engie that her yearly bill will increase by $634 from Wednesday.
When asked about Labor's $150 six-month energy rebate, which kicks in from July 1, she grimly responds: 'Albanese's subsidy isn't fixing this'.
Ms Fisher currently pays about $120 a fortnight on electricity bills, nearly 15 per cent of her fortnightly JobSeeker payment, and is struggling with an energy debt - money owing to energy providers - of $6000.
Because she needs to run airconditioning during the summer to keep cool due to a health condition, she uses the winters to bring down her debt.
'I tried to change electricity companies, because this one has consistently been very high, but I still have to pay them off while paying the new electricity company ... I just can't do that,' Ms Fisher said.
Antipoverty Centre co-ordinator Jay Coonan said Ms Fisher is one of more than 330,775 Australian households facing electricity bill debt, with the total amount of arrears totalling over $300m.
Under the Default Market Offer set by the Australian Energy Regulator, customers on standing offer contracts are set to have their bills increase by 7.9 per cent to 9.7 per cent in NSW, while residents in southeast Queensland will see hikes of 3.7 per cent, and 3.2 per cent in South Australia.
Calculated by the state Essential Services Commission, Victorians will have to weather a 1 per cent spike.
Alongside Anglicare and ACOSS, Mr Coonan is one of many advocacy groups calling on energy retailers and the government to absorb electricity bill debt and give households a chance to catch up.
Mr Coonan said bill stress was having a 'compounding effect' on cash-poor Australians, who were giving up medication and food to get by.
'It's compounding into a crisis and if you can't afford energy you're going to be suffering more and more and living with less and less,' he said.
'I'm talking about people who are on the JobSeeker payment, and pensioners. These are the people who are in debt, who have no ability to be able to pay their bills because energy prices are high.'
Recent Anglicare research also found low-income earners were most affected by electricity bill debt, and despite the minimum wage going up by $32.06 a week from July 1, a worker on a full-time wage would have just $33 left over after paying for rent, food and transport.
A single-parent on would have just $1 remaining even if they received the full Family Tax Benefit and were on the highest rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers said too many households were 'falling behind and staying behind'.
'People are forced into payment plans they can't sustain. They carry energy debt from one bill to the next with no chance of catching up, even though energy retailers are making record profits,' she said.
'That's why we're calling for energy debt relief for people in hardship, and better regulation to stop the gauging of energy costs and helps people to start afresh.'
While Energy Minister Chris Bowen didn't comment directly on calls to scrap the bill debt for households, he acknowledged energy was too expensive.
'It's clear energy bills for many Australians remain higher than they should be – that's why we're providing help for people doing it tough as we deliver longer term reform, including making the energy retail market fairer,' he said.
He pointed to recent rule changes that restrict price increases to once every 12 months, prohibit retail fees for vulnerable customers, and remove 'unreasonably high penalties' for customers who aren't able to pay their bill one time.
Coalition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said Labor 'must honour' its 2022 election commitment to reducing energy bills by $275 – a policy the party didn't rehash in the 2025 election.
'Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen said Australia was going to become an energy super power under their ideologically-driven renewable-only approach, yet the sad reality is that more and more Australians are being driven into energy poverty,' he said.
His words come as the Coalition reviews its commitment to net-zero.
Mr Tehan went as far as to say that Mr Bowen should quit as minister if energy bills don't come down.
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