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Next Monday, July 1, doesn’t just mean tax time – there are a host of prices, rules and payments changing with the new financial year, which will have a significant impact on your pocket.
Some, like welfare indexation, happen every year or sometimes even more often, while others, like stage 3 tax cuts and energy bill relief, are big one-off changes.
Here’s a rundown of what’s changing this coming Monday and how each of the measures will affect you.
Rather than a large lump sum payment like some other tax breaks, the tax cuts will mean you’ll be able to take home more of your pay each payday as less of it will be lost to the tax office, effectively giving you salary increase.
For someone working full-time for 38 hours, that’s an extra $33 a week.
Additional paid parental leave
This figure will increase by another two weeks in 2025 and 2026.
The Superannuation Guarantee will rise on July 1 from 11 to 11.5 per cent, putting more money into the super accounts of full-time, part-time and temporary workers.
The guarantee is the minimum amount of an employee’s basic earnings that the employer must pay as super. Like paid parental leave, it will increase again on 1 July 2025.
This will take the form of four $75 rebates – one each quarter – that will automatically be applied to your bills.
(Mostly) cheaper energy bills
While we’re on the subject of energy bills, a huge chunk of Australia’s population will be paying less for their electricity from 1 July.
The reason is new Default Market Offers (DMOs) coming into effect for New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and South East Queensland.
For the most part, these DMOs, from which energy prices are referenced, are falling thanks to lower wholesale prices.
For households in NSW, they will fall by between 0.2 and 5.9 per cent, depending on where exactly in the state someone is and whether they use controlled load, for Victoria it is between 3.3 and 7.3 per cent, and South Australia 1 and 2.2 per cent.
That would save up to $170 a year, or $289 in real terms (ie after inflation is taken into account) for households with average energy use, and that’s even before government rebates come into play.
The DMO for South East Queensland ratepayers isn’t as good – rising 2.2% for those using load-controlled and 4.9% for those not.
That equates to $51 and $97 respectively, although energy rebates will mean the overall cost of energy will be lower next year.
This year’s increase comes on the back of a 15 percent increase last year – the first consecutive increase in more than 30 years.
Social security payments are increasing
More than two million Australians will benefit when a range of welfare payments, including family payments and pensions, are increased through the next installment of quarterly indexation.
All the changes so far have been welcome news, offering some relief during the cost of living crisis. The next couple is less.
First, the internet: it’s getting more expensive. Thanks to wholesale NBN price increases of between $2.22 and $2.52 a month, many households will have to pay more for their existing plans – although some are getting cheaper.
Your exact out-of-pocket costs vary depending on your provider and what plan you use. Telstra, for example, is increasing its 25 mbps plan by $4 a month and its 50 mbps plan by $5.
Its 1,000 mbps plan remains unchanged, while its 250 and 1,000 mbps plans drop by $5 and $20 per month, respectively.
If you’re with Optus, the picture is pretty similar: 25 and 50 mbps plans are up by $5 and $4 respectively, while the price of a 1000 mbps connection has dropped by $20.
Next, the cost of traveling abroad will increase thanks to the increase in passport fees. A 10-year adult passport will soon set you back $398, down from $346 now.
The ban was introduced because the processed stone is full of crystalline silica, which when cut, ground, polished or drilled produces dust that causes deadly diseases such as silicosis and lung cancer.
How the ban will be implemented varies between states and territories. In some, including Queensland and Victoria, a blanket ban banning all work with artificial stone will come into effect immediately from July 1.
Other jurisdictions such as NSW and South Australia will have a transition period until the end of the year, allowing existing contracts to be completed over the next six months.
The stricter regulations against all crystalline silica products will come into force on 1 September.
The housing crisis is one of the biggest issues facing Australia today, and new efforts to tackle it will officially begin on Monday.
But if achieved, the targets will facilitate a much-needed surge in housing supply, which should (in theory) in turn bring property prices and rents under control.
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