An Australian woman has criticised corporations for raising prices during a cost of living crisis.
Bec expressed her frustration with her energy supplier after receiving a bill that had “doubled” in just six months.
“Can someone tell me why my Origin Energy bill has doubled in the last six months?” he asked in a tone of voice. Video posted on social media.
She explained that her local coffee shop was “too scared” to raise the price of their coffee by fifty cents because they were afraid of losing customers.
“(The cafe) has suppliers of milk, sugar and wages, and they are afraid to raise prices because they don’t want to lose customers,” Craig said.
“Yet we have huge greedy corporations like Origin and AGL doubling what we pay for essential services like energy for our homes,” he added.
“Can someone please tell me if they are paying their staff twice as much as they were six months ago? Someone please help me with this.”
Bec called the cost of living crisis a “joke” and said “inflation is just an excuse for big business to raise prices.”
Australian Bec has slammed her energy supplier after receiving a bill that “doubled” in just six months
Many Australians agreed with Bec and shared their experiences of rising costs for essential bills.
“Why has my car insurance increased by $800 in a year when I have never filed a claim?” one person wrote.
“My cell phone bill just went up $20 a month because they said maintenance costs would increase. I don’t think that’s bullshit! Plus the service is worse than ever,” wrote another.
“My home insurance has gone up $720 a year and my electric bill has doubled. It’s crap,” commented a third.
Others argued that large companies could increase customers’ bills because they provided an essential service and buying a coffee was a “want”.
“The difference is ‘needs and wants’. You need electricity, but coffee and cafes are a want. They know you need electricity. It’s simple: greed,” one person wrote.
Another added: “Nobody needs expensive coffee, that’s why they’re not going to serve it. Sure, you can live without electricity, but I don’t think many people do.”
A sixth said: “There is no need for energy companies to keep raising prices. But they do it because they get away with it and the government does nothing.”
In the year to May, electricity bills rose by 6.5 per cent, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The increase prompted the Albanese government to introduce a $300 rebate on energy bills for all Australian households to help combat the rising cost of living.
Starting July 1, households will see a $300 credit automatically applied to their electric bills, while one million small businesses will receive $325 off their bills.
Meanwhile, inflation jumped to 4 percent in the year to May, up from 3.6 percent the previous month, prompting NAB analysts to warn that any rate cuts could be delayed until after May next year.
Bec claimed one local coffee shop was “too scared” to raise its coffee prices for fear of losing customers, but claimed big businesses were raising costs without a second thought.
The combination of rising energy bills, higher petrol prices and soaring rents has helped push consumer price growth to a six-month high, well above the Reserve Bank’s two to three per cent target.
Analysts at UBS and Deutsche Bank have joined Judo Bank chief economist Warren Hogan in predicting a 14th rate hike in August.
The prediction could be a crushing blow to struggling mortgage holders who have endured 13 rate increases between May 2022 and November 2023.
The prime minister is expected to discuss his government’s cost of living measures and record of economic management in parliament this morning.
But some economists warn that Mr Albanese’s cost-of-living measures, such as the $300 energy rebate, risk keeping inflation high and therefore hitting Australians’ pockets.
“Governments are spending a lot of money on the symptoms of the cost of living crisis, but that’s making the cause of the crisis worse. And the cause is too many dollars being spent on too little things,” independent economist Chris Richardson told The Australian.
“Governments have abandoned the battlefield in the fight against inflation. We are fighting inflation single-handedly.”
This comes as the Albanese government introduced a $300 energy bill rebate for all Australian households to combat rising costs of living from July 1.
In news that will strike anger into the hearts of struggling households, Mr Richardson warned that “mortgage relief is a long, long way off”.
EY chief economist Cherelle Murphy also said there was now a strong possibility of another rate hike when the RBA meets again in August.
“The monthly consumer price index has shaken financial markets, which are now seriously considering again the possibility of another rate hike by the Reserve Bank at its next meeting,” he said.
The bad news came just a week after RBA Governor Michele Bullock confirmed that a rate hike was more likely than a cut, with the cash rate remaining at a 12-year high of 4.35 percent this month.
“Yes, the board of directors discussed the case for raising interest rates at this meeting,” he told reporters.
“No, the possibility of a cut has not been considered.”
