Albanese confirms millions of Australians will benefit from July 1 cost-of-living measures

A minimum wage hike, longer paid leave for parents of 24 weeks and a $10,000 incentive for apprentice tradies in house construction are among the cost-of-living measures due to kick into effect on July 1.

A further $150 in energy bill relief for households and about one million small businesses, and a government subsidy covering about 30 per cent of the cost of installing a battery system alongside solar energy are among a raft of new policies offering hip pocket relief to Australians.

Spruiking the new grant for tradies at the Canberra Institute for Technology on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would help boost the supply of homes critical for dealing with housing affordability.

“This $10,000 incentive that begins tomorrow with $2,000 cash payments will make a difference going forward … in sending out that message that the government values your decision if you choose to go into construction,” he said.

Apprentices would also be among 2.9 million Australians benefiting from a new 3.5 per cent rise in the National Minimum Wage and award wages that would come into force on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said.

Earlier on Monday, Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth told ABC Radio National Breakfast that this represented a “real wage increase” compared to a 2.4 per cent inflation rate.

“We have. as a government, consistently called on the [Fair Work] Commission to ensure that our lowest paid workers don’t go backwards,” she said.

“We’ve been really clear that we want to see more people getting this increase and and I’m really pleased about that, but we’re also seeing real wages grow across the economy, not just for our minimum and award wage workers,” she added.

The Minister also defended an increase in the employers’ minimum required contribution to superannuation accounts after objections from small businesses. The minimum will rise to from 11.5 to 12 per cent from July 1.

“This trajectory to get to 12 per cent has been a long time coming and is a really important measure to ensure that workers have enough money to retire on in their superannuation,” she said.

“When the Fair Work Commission was deciding on what the minimum wage should be, they did take into consideration the fact that the Superannuation Guarantee was increasing as well, but this has been a long-term phase in of an increase to the super guarantee.”

A treasury analysis released last week revealed that millions of Australians would be tens of thousands of dollars better off at retirement as a result of the half per cent jump.

A worker at age 30 earning the average full-time income (around $103,000) will have an extra $21,000 at retirement as a result of this 0.5 percentage point increase alone in the Super Guarantee, said the analysis.

July 1 will see the roll out of a long line-up of policies to ease the cost-of-living burden, several of which were promised by Labor during the Federal election campaign.

Centrelink payments and thresholds will increase by 2.4 per cent for about 2.4 million recipients in keeping with regular indexation.

Healthcare will also become cheaper for women, with four new Medicare items supporting longer consultation times and higher rebates for specialised gynaecological care for conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and chronic pelvic pain.

Also from July 1, new menopause and perimenopause health assessments are available under Medicare.

The new financial year will also herald good news for nursery, midwifery, teaching and social work students through the Commonwealth Prac Payment that will provide $331.65 in weekly support.

This measure is expected to benefit 68,000 higher education students each year.

Older Australians receiving a pension are also set to gain from adjusted income and asset thresholds designed to better keep up with inflation.