Latest news with #Coonan


Perth Now
01-07-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Grim message to Albo on $634 bill hike
A welfare advocate has warned Australians struggling with soaring energy costs are giving up food and medication, with increases to minimum wage and a $150 extension to the energy rebate doing little to soothe rising bill shock. 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'. When asked about the extension to the federal government energy rebate, Ms Fisher responded: 'Albanese's subsidy isn't fixing this'. Credit: Supplied 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. South Australian public housing resident Mel Fischer, 43, is struggling to keep up with her bills, leaving her to seek warmth in bed instead of using her heating during winter. NewsWire/ Roy VanDerVegt Credit: News Corp Australia 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. Ms Fischer was recently hit with a notice that her power bills would be increasing by $635 over the next financial year. Supplied Credit: Supplied 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.' Energy Minister Chris Bowen acknowledged energy bills were too high. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 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. '(He) should resign because his incompetence is sadly causing untold hardship to more and more people,' Mr Tehan said.


The Guardian
05-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Liberal insiders warn Coalition faces ‘existential crisis' and urgently needs to attract more women
Senior Coalition figures are warning the federal opposition faces an existential crisis and must urgently attract more women, calling for Peter Dutton's replacement to overhaul policy development and candidate recruitment processes. On current numbers, the Coalition will have fewer than 10 women in the 150-seat House of Representatives. The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, and shadow immigration spokesman, Dan Tehan, are all consulting on possible tilts at the Liberal party leadership, testing support with MPs who survived Saturday's electoral rout. The shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, has also been urged by colleagues to run. Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews on Monday warned the opposition had reached a new low under Dutton's leadership, saying the election loss had sent 'shockwaves'. 'The Coalition is facing an existential crisis. The first warning bell sounded in 2022 but the thinking of many in leadership positions didn't change, if anything, they locked into the old ways,' Andrews said. 'Recriminations are disappointing to hear at this time. If those with the ability to influence the direction of the party had stood up and voiced their opinion when they had the chance, perhaps the situation would not be so dire now. 'It's not too late to rebuild but action should start today.' Helen Coonan, a former Howard government minister, told Guardian Australia the party needed to do more to build a pipeline of quality candidates, including women. But she stressed quality policy offerings to make the lives of Australians better were essential to appealing to prospective voters. 'If you ignore the contribution women make, and what their expectations are, for organisations, that's not going to augur well. 'I think women have looked at the Coalition and not liked what they've seen in some policy positions, so have looked for something else. 'Politics, or at least what parties offer, should be about how to enrich people's lives, how to enable people, and not just be a laundry list of things that might not have much relevance to them anyway.' Coonan said female MPs in the current parliamentary Liberal party deserved credit for their advocacy. 'To attract women to run as candidates, whether you've got quotas or no quotas, if they haven't got a good story to sell, if they don't feel that they are part of a compelling narrative that appeals beyond being in a party, that's not really going to help attract good women,' Coonan said. 'They will ask, where is this going, where is my place?' Outgoing Liberal senator Linda Reynolds on Monday called for Ley to lead the party, calling the campaign 'a comprehensive failure'. 'You can see through successive reviews in federal and state in terms of where we have taken the wrong turn, but we haven't comprehensively understood those lessons and we certainly haven't implemented the reforms that are needed.' Reynolds, the former defence minister, said the party's male dominance was holding it back. 'Ten years ago I was part of a review into gender … and we recommended targets and how to get there without quotas. That's been the Liberal party policy for 10 years but it's just sat on a shelf,' she told ABC radio. 'We do have to have the hard conversations now about how we become more gender-balanced but also a broader diversity.' Guardian Australia has been told Ley was central to the decision to ditch the controversial policy to restrict work from home arrangements for government employees, which was seen as toxic with voters. One former Liberal MP said damage from the plan caused a fundamental shift in the campaign's early weeks, stopping some prospective voters considering Dutton at all. 'For some ridiculous reason, somebody thought this was a good idea. It didn't sound good from the moment it was mentioned. 'If you're in a Canberra bubble, it doesn't matter who the leader is. If you are not listening to your constituents, to our communities, to our women, to our battlers, you won't get anywhere. 'I am a great believer in the strength of democracy and the party system, and when we get it right, we'll get it right for the country.' A leadership ballot is expected after results in a string of close seats are determined. Labor looks to have more than 85 seats in the new parliament, with the Coalition leading the count in about 40 seats.