Cost of living relief in budget will be ‘substantial’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the cost of living relief in the upcoming budget “won’t be identical” to previous budgets but will be “substantial”. The Treasurer will hand down the government’s budget in just a few days on Tuesday, May 14. “We have shown a willingness in the past to take the edge off energy bills and rent in previous budgets,” Mr Chalmers told Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell. “In the year to March, electricity bills would have gone up almost 15 per cent if we hadn’t acted. Instead, they went up two per cent. “That has shown our bona fides when it comes to easing these cost of living pressures where we can so that we are part of the solution to this inflation challenge rather than part of the problem.”