Master butcher Pino Tomini Foresti is facing a big hike in his energy bills.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
“I see young families asking for something a little more economical to feed the family. People will start to feel it like they did when interest rates went up in the 80s,” he said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned households will be hit by a 56 per cent surge in energy bills in the coming two years - a 20 per cent price increase this financial year,on average.
That’s on top of a 15 per cent average increase in gas bills for residential customers and 26 per cent for small businesses already reported earlier this year by pricing regulator,IPART NSW. Electricity bills are already up 19 to 24 per cent for residential and 31 per cent to 34 per cent for small business customers.
The St Vincent de Paul Society has reported that households connected to gas and electricity in Sydney’s inner,Eastern and Northern suburbs experienced a $295 increase in annual energy costs from July this year. The cost increase for households in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains was as high as $425.
Muir Thomson,who runs a sheet metal manufacturing company in St Marys called Laser Wizard,said he would have to pass the increased power costs on to customers including students and small family businesses. His gas and electricity costs were about $215,000 in 2021 and were expected to increase by about $130,000 per year.
“It’s going to flow on,” he said. “Our business uses a lot of electricity.