00:00For those who are really feeling the cost of living crunch at the moment, there is some
00:06hip pocket relief that is on the way at various areas.
00:10Let's take a look at some of those changes.
00:12First of all, those Stage 3 tax cuts.
00:14So that means that anybody on an average wage of around $98,000 a year is going to get back
00:20just over $2,000.
00:22We are also going to see that $300 energy bill rebate as well.
00:28And also, we're seeing the minimum wage rise as of today.
00:32So that's going up by 3.75% to $24.10 per hour.
00:38And that, of course, also flows through to all those award wages.
00:41We're also going to see a 0.5% increase in super going up to 11.5% as well for your super.
00:49And also, we are seeing to paid parental leave.
00:53That's going to extend by 10 days.
00:55As well as that, we're going to see a whole range of social services payments increasing,
01:01like the Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
01:03That's all going up in line with inflation and CPI changes.
01:07So that's being indexed.
01:09But many of the commuters that I've spoken to this morning here at Melbourne Southern
01:13Cross Station, well, they say this tax relief, as well as that energy rebate, it really doesn't
01:18touch the sides when it comes to those spiralling bills and costs.
01:23I don't think there's any benefit to it, to be honest.
01:25It's $1,300.
01:27That's not going to make any difference down the track to me whatsoever.
01:30So thank you, but I think there's a better way of doing it.
01:34Don't know what it is, but that's not the way for me.
01:36I catch the train here to get early bird to save $5 every day.
01:40People are just really struggling at the moment.
01:42There's just, everything's too expensive, food items, $5 for one thing.
01:47It's not enough to support people.
01:49Definitely don't think it's enough just yet.
01:52Especially in this climate that we're in at the moment, I think there's, everything's
01:56going up a lot, but we're not getting anything for it.
02:03So some pretty uniform responses from commuters that I've been speaking to here.
02:07Many feel that they're really struggling with those rising cost of living pressures and
02:11of course inflation is the big worry.
02:14Gemma, it's remained stubbornly high at around 4% and we know that there are concerns among
02:20financial commentators that particularly these tax cuts could fuel inflationary pressure
02:25as well.
02:26So we're really going to have to keep a close eye on the CPI June quarter figures.
02:30They're coming out on July 31 and so we're not just looking at that from an economic
02:36point of view, but of course also that interest rate point of view because that's what the
02:40RBA board will really be trying to look at to see whether or not they can get inflation
02:46back within that target range.
02:48Otherwise, we are potentially looking at yet another interest rate rise above that
02:534.35% cash rate right now at the moment.
02:58So there is still a lot of concern out here amongst many people that feel like they're
03:03really doing it tough, both with inflation and also mortgages.
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