Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has handed down his fifth budget, revealing a raft of cost-of-living relief measures for Queenslanders to the tune of $11.2bn. A major feature is a $1000 rebate on electricity bills that will be coupled with a $300 rebate announced by the federal government and paid quarterly.Continue Reading
Environmentalists have reacted with fury to the news mining behemoth BHP will sell its Blackwater and Daunia coalmines in Central Queensland to NSW producer Whitehaven in a mega $6.4bn transaction. Whitehaven, which produces thermal coal in the Gunnedah basin north of Newcastle, will pay BHP about $3.3bn upfront and thenContinue Reading
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to unveil an improvement to the budget bottom line of almost $18bn, bringing the underlying cash surplus to $22.1bn. On Friday, the government will formally release the final budget outcome figures for 2022-23, showing the first recorded surplus since Peter Costello’s final budget in 2007.Continue Reading
The rollout of the government’s energy price relief plan will be at the centrepiece of Jim Chalmers’ meeting with his state and territory counterparts on Friday. The treasurers’ will use the first Council on Federal Financial Relations meeting of the year to ramp up negotiations for their equal contributions toContinue Reading
China appears to be in the process of backflipping from a policy designed to bring Australia’s economy to its knees. This week, independent reports emerged from both Bloomberg and Reuters that China’s ban on importing Australian coal might soon be lifted. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, China imposedContinue Reading
Anthony Albanese is gearing up for a senate showdown this week when parliament is recalled to deal with the energy crisis. National cabinet on Friday agreed to “extraordinary” temporary measures to target soaring energy bills, with the government now seeking to impose a price cap on both coal and gasContinue Reading
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has launched a fresh attack on the gas industry, as he defends the government’s unprecedented deal to cap input prices to tackle the energy crisis. On Friday, the federal government sealed a deal with state and territory leaders to immediately cap gas prices at $12 aContinue Reading
A new government plan aimed to ease household energy costs is not “magic bullet” that will trigger Australia’s prices to fall, according to a senior Minister. Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen made the comments on Saturday after Anthony Albanese announced national cabinet had devised a plan to cap wholesale gasContinue Reading
Households could secure a $280 rebate providing temporary relief for soaring energy prices under a deal being thrashed out at national cabinet. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is urging state premiers to use Friday’s meeting to thrash out a price cap for the industry and other measures to provide families withContinue Reading