Five ways the new government can help you fight the rising cost of living

We had a long period of time to solve this problem and did almost nothing.

The new government needs to own this mess and invest some money to speed up the testing of solar gardens, solar “banks”, public batteries and other ideas to speed up access to solar energy for all Australians.

National fuel price app

In NSW, Queensland, Tasmania, NT and WA drivers can check the app to see which petrol dealer has the cheapest fuel because state governments have prescribed price transparency. SA proceeds to this example, but Victoria inexplicably endured.

Transparency stimulates competition that keeps prices lower than they would otherwise, so let’s create a national federal government app similar to states and tell everyone about it.

Only one in five drivers enjoy these supplements at the price of gasoline, and, with some government support and promotion, it could be four out of five.

Revise fuel taxes

Due to rising gasoline prices, we are at a turning point, when the proliferation of electric vehicles is likely to accelerate if they become easier to buy. The only thing holding back this transition is the global supply chain.

Wealthy drivers are more likely to switch to electric cars first, as they are still more expensive than petrol cars. But not for long.

So, let’s stop taxing road users at 44 cents per liter of petrol or diesel and reforming road user fees so that they aren’t targeted primarily at those who can’t afford to use electricity.

Let’s think about how we tax road users.

Energy switching sites

We have world-class websites designed to promote switching energy suppliers to get the cheapest prices on the market. Why don’t the authorities tell everyone about them?

State and federal governments have created excellent websites to compare for energy consumers – energymadeeasy.gov.au and compare.energy.vic.gov.au. They can even read your last electricity bill via email and compare it to all the other offers on the market in order of price.

Last year it was used by 2.3 million people national site. Five years earlier, a separate government site of New South Wales had helped people switch 20,000 households to cheaper suppliers.

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However, our new federal government must set a goal of 10 million visits to these sites a year and then work out what is needed to do so.

Millions of people are unaware that such comparison websites exist, and are losing much-needed savings.

The Victoria government is offering householders $ 250 just to visit them energy saving site from July, which may well change the game. In addition, from July 1, every electricity bill will direct people to these energy-saving websites.

National Insurance Comparison Tool

There’s no good reason why – despite what the insurance industry tells us – you can’t compare every insurance policy in the country on one website with the prices and key features listed.

It exists for electricity, mortgages, communications goods and gasoline.

Now is the time for the insurance industry to kick and shout in the 21st century.

Joel Gibson is the author KILL RAHAN. Catch his money-saving segments on Nine radios, Today and on Twitter @joelgibson.