Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen will meet with his state and territory counterparts on Wednesday to formulate measures aimed at assisting people to cope with rising energy costs.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has urged the federal government to provide an emergency energy debt relief payment of up to $1,000 for households on low fixed incomes, arguing that more than 250,000 people are already in energy debt in the wake of the pandemic.
ACOSS has also suggested that the government could look at bringing forward the scheduled indexation of pension and unemployment payments.
