Ministers statements: energy policy
Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (14:17): I am absolutely delighted to update the house on the progress of our power saving bonus and how we are helping Victorian families—indeed every single Victorian household—to ease their cost-of-living pressures. Last month, people will know, we announced that from 1 July every Victorian household will be able to apply for a $250 power saving bonus simply by going to the trusted Victorian government Victorian Energy Compare website. And how have Victorians responded to this announcement? How have they indeed. I am very pleased to report that we have had already 140 000 Victorian households register their interest to apply on this website, which demonstrates how popular and how important our announcement is and how well targeted and well received it absolutely is. This is in addition to the 480 000 families who received our first power saving bonus of $50 under the first phase and the nearly 400 000 Victorian families who have received a payment under the current phase of the program—those on concessions, targeting those people to get their power saving bonus. Those who have not applied for it yet can get on right now, get $250 and then come back from 1 July and get another $250 straight in their pockets.
Of course we do not stop there when it comes to supporting Victorian families. It adds to the biggest support package of any state government, frankly, when it comes to people’s energy prices. We have introduced the Victorian default offer and a fair market price, increased penalties for dodgy retailers that were allowed to run rampant by those people opposite and provided the most generous energy utilities concessions for pensioners—17.5 per cent for gas and electricity. And it does not stop there. The Solar Homes program, the utility relief grants—certainly Victorians are getting the best possible care from this government.