Households and small businesses face another massive spike in power bills despite government intervention to keep a lid on prices.
The Australian Energy Regulator has released its draft decision on default market prices for 2023-24.
Residential customers in southeast Queensland face price hikes of up to 19.8 per cent, which is 13 per cent higher than the increase in inflation.
South Australian residents will see their default market prices rise by up to 21.8 per cent.
While New South Wales customers will see the biggest increases among households of up to 23.7 per cent.
However, small businesses will be hit the hardest with price rises of between 14.7 per cent and 25.4 per cent, depending on their region.
Price rises in other areas of the country will be decided by a separate determination from the regulator.
The default market price is the maximum amount an energy retailer can charge customers who are on a default contract, with people urged to shop around.
“There are better offers out there in the market. Go online, find the best offer for you.” Australian Energy Regulator Chair Clare Savage told the ABC.
“But most importantly, if customers are worried about paying their bill, they should contact their retailer. There are concessions and rebates available and there’s also things like hardship programs and payment plans that can be there to help.”
The federal government concedes the price hike will hurt at a time other costs are soaring.
But Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says the increase would have been a whole lot worse had they not stepped in to put a cap on gas and coal prices.
“We understand the pressures in relation to power prices. It’s also really clear that the step that we took in December of last year has given rise to a downward pressure on power prices,” Mr Marles told the ABC.
“Electricity prices in February were half of what they were in November prior to making that decision. But it’s precisely because of what we saw happening here that we thought we needed to take a step, we’ve done that.
“Those power prices would be much higher but for what we did in December.”
The regulator will make a final decision on energy prices in May.
