Battery Subsidy Faces Cuts as Ministers Hunt Savings

Treasury is drafting options to scale back the Cheaper Home Batteries Scheme, including a smaller upfront subsidy, as ministers search their portfolios for budget savings. About 600,000 home batteries have gone into homes since the program began in 2025. Now, government budget reviewers and a prime minister who hasn’t ruled out means-testing subsidies will decide its future.

The scheme currently gives households an upfront discount of about 25 per cent of a battery’s cost. A cut would change what people pay to install one, but the article provides no estimate of how many could lose support or how much a lower rebate might save. Treasury is preparing options; it hasn’t announced a final decision.

A successful scheme, marked for savings

Environment Minister Murray Watt called the scheme “phenomenally successful,” while saying ministers had been asked to find savings in their portfolios before the mid-year budget update. Watt said the Expenditure Review Committee was still reviewing proposed savings. The review puts the subsidy among spending choices under consideration at the top of government, while households seeking the upfront discount have no stated role in the process.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the program had delivered about 600,000 home battery installations since it began in 2025. In a social media post on Friday, he said the batteries were “also putting downward pressure on prices for everyone, whether or not you have a battery.” That’s the government’s stated case for the program’s wider benefit. The report gives no separate price figures.

Changes to the rebates took effect in May 2026 to keep the $7.2 billion program from running out of money too quickly. Treasury is reportedly considering another round of savings, including a lower subsidy on a unit’s upfront cost. The prime minister hasn’t ruled out means-testing home battery or electric-vehicle subsidies, but the article reports no decision to introduce a test.

Budget pressure, rival demands

The Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the fifth time this year, lifting the cash rate to an 18-year high. The prime minister then promised savings in the upcoming mid-year budget update, also known as MYEFO. Speaking in Brisbane during the government’s weekly fuel-supply update, Watt said, “Every single minister in the government has been asked to find savings in their portfolios, just like we’ve been asked to do so in every budget update.”

The Coalition wants the battery scheme scrapped, calling it “unsafe and unaffordable.” Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan said, “If Labor were serious about addressing inflation, they would simply scrap the subsidy altogether.” Asked in Melbourne whether the program should be means-tested, Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson said the Coalition’s focus was “getting rid of government programs that are stoking inflation right now.” He said the Coalition had put $31.3 billion in savings before the Albanese government.

Watt accused the opposition of blocking “$10 billion of savings” before the Senate. “On their logic, if they’re saying that increased spending means higher inflation, then they are driving inflation higher by refusing to back in those savings that we’ve put forward,” he said. Government and opposition figures offered rival claims about spending, inflation and the Senate. The article describes no grassroots or community-organized response to the proposed changes.

Diesel stocks under review

Australia had 31 days’ worth of diesel, three days fewer than the previous week, according to a government update that pointed to uncertain global conditions. Watt said stocks sat around the level of two weeks earlier and were “within normal levels.” He gave the update in place of Bowen, who was travelling to Türkiye for the COP31 climate summit. The update covered both the battery subsidy and fuel stocks, with ministers, Treasury and party representatives discussing spending reviews, uncertainty and possible decisions.