Scrapping the carbon tax has delivered families and businesses in New South Wales the biggest drop in electricity prices on record.
The ABS has released the Consumer Price Index for the September Quarter 2014 -the first outcome since the Coalition scrapped Labor’s damaging carbon tax. These figures revealed that electricity prices had the largest fall since 1980 (when the CPI electricity price series was created).
In our State power bills are up to 10 per cent lower than they would have been with the carbon tax. These lower electricity costs are likely to provide flow on benefits on the cost of other goods and services.
Treasury estimates that the abolition of the carbon tax will reduce the CPI by around 0.7 percentage points through the year to the June quarter of 2015.
During Labor’s time in office, electricity prices rose by 101%. These figures from the ABS confirm that scrapping the carbon tax is delivering real and immediate cost of living relief to Australian families.
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The Australian Government has introduced legislation to change the Do Not Call Register so that it will only be necessary to place a phone number on the Register once, as opposed to re-registering after eight years.
The Do Not Call register was introduced under the Howard Government and has been very popular. About two-thirds of Australian households have listed their number on the Register. There are now 9.3 million current registrations with around 1 million numbers added every year.
The changes introduced to the Register in parliament last week mean that households will no longer have to remember to renew their registration. The Coalition has introduced these changes as a part of their focus on decreasing unnecessary regulation. The initiative is part of the October 2014 Red Tape Repeal Day and will save $3.4 million a year over 10 years in administrative costs.
If a household who has registered with this service receives a call from a telemarketer, they can report this to the Australian Communications and Media Authority – who can investigate and take action including issuing infringement notices and hefty fines.
Some organisations have an exemption and are able to make unsolicited calls, these include charities, educational institutions and political parties. Phone numbers that are primarily used for business purposes may not be registered however any fax number can be listed on the Register.
The Do Not Call Register is a free Government service and registration of a phone line, mobile phone or fax number can be done on line in five easy steps, at www.donotcall.gov.au, by phone on 1300 792 958 or by post.
