You're about to get more super. Here's all you need to know
The guarantee, which is the minimum amount employers must pay into their employees super fund, has increased from 11.5 per cent to 12 per cent, giving the average worker hundreds of dollars more in super contributions a year.
This latest increase marks the end of years of incremental increases to the minimum super contribution requirement from 9 per cent to 12 per cent after it was legislated back in 2012.
This is the final scheduled increase mandated by the Australian Taxation Office, which must be paid quarterly, although it can be paid more often.
This month also marks the time when superannuation payments must be included in the government's Parental Leave Pay scheme. The superannuation increase also applies to Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay, benefiting millions of Australians. It will narrow the gender super gap by around a quarter, which is about $50,000 for Australians nearing retirement.
What do I need to do?
Check your next payslip to ensure that the new rate has been applied to the superannuation your employer has paid on your behalf into your super fund. To get the most out of the extra payments, make sure you consolidate your super into one fund to avoid paying extra fees.
Also, take a moment to check how much you're paying in fees to your super fund, compare its performance to see if it's holding back your super compared to other funds, and check your fund is the best fit for your age and retirement goals.
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The Advertiser
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- The Advertiser
EVs may be the way to drive down everyone's power bills
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The council wants V2G chargers included in the federal government's $2.3 billion home battery program and says 600,000 contributing EVs would match the output of NSW's Eraring power station operating at full capacity. There is major potential to make electricity cheaper and help stabilise the energy grid, according to CEO Julie Delvecchio. "Just as Australia became a rapid global leader in rooftop solar, we have the opportunity now to lead the charge in vehicle-to-grid uptake," she said on Saturday. "EVs can store up to five times more energy than a typical home battery." Australia is already home to more than 350,000 EVs or "giant batteries on wheels", with a high proportion garaged in middle and outer suburbia. "With some EVs now around $30,000, the up-front cost is making it more affordable for more Australians to make the switch to cheaper-to-run cars," Ms Delvecchio said. "V2G unlocks the full benefit of EV uptake in a way that helps everyone - EV owner or not." The council is calling for the home battery program to include $3000 rebates for 50,000 V2G chargers by the end of 2028 at a cost of $150 million. It calculates this would create a national benefit of more than $230 million by 2033. A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney and iMove Co-operative Research Centre earlier this year found more than half of all Australians would like their car to double as a battery that could feed power back to the grid. However big changes would be needed to make the process easier. The high price of bi-direction chargers, persistent software issues and complicated installation processes were cited as the main issues. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency issued a V2G roadmap in February that estimated 2.6 million households could be using the technology by 2040 to support the energy grid and save money. Incentives for electric car owners to sell energy stored in their vehicles back to the grid could deliver a $230 million national windfall and make power cheaper for everyone. Modelling by the Electric Vehicle Council suggests a $3000 government rebate towards vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, chargers would create $4500 in downward pressure on electricity bills Australia wide. So called bi-directional technology allows energy stored in EVs during daylight hours and while power is cheap to be sold back during evening peaks. According to the research, every dollar spent supporting V2G would mean a $1.50 return through lower wholesale prices and a reduced need for additional expenditure on infrastructure. The benefit for participating EV owners would be handy too, with an extra $1000 per year in their pockets for exporting power when demand is high. The council wants V2G chargers included in the federal government's $2.3 billion home battery program and says 600,000 contributing EVs would match the output of NSW's Eraring power station operating at full capacity. There is major potential to make electricity cheaper and help stabilise the energy grid, according to CEO Julie Delvecchio. "Just as Australia became a rapid global leader in rooftop solar, we have the opportunity now to lead the charge in vehicle-to-grid uptake," she said on Saturday. "EVs can store up to five times more energy than a typical home battery." Australia is already home to more than 350,000 EVs or "giant batteries on wheels", with a high proportion garaged in middle and outer suburbia. "With some EVs now around $30,000, the up-front cost is making it more affordable for more Australians to make the switch to cheaper-to-run cars," Ms Delvecchio said. "V2G unlocks the full benefit of EV uptake in a way that helps everyone - EV owner or not." The council is calling for the home battery program to include $3000 rebates for 50,000 V2G chargers by the end of 2028 at a cost of $150 million. It calculates this would create a national benefit of more than $230 million by 2033. A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney and iMove Co-operative Research Centre earlier this year found more than half of all Australians would like their car to double as a battery that could feed power back to the grid. However big changes would be needed to make the process easier. The high price of bi-direction chargers, persistent software issues and complicated installation processes were cited as the main issues. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency issued a V2G roadmap in February that estimated 2.6 million households could be using the technology by 2040 to support the energy grid and save money. Incentives for electric car owners to sell energy stored in their vehicles back to the grid could deliver a $230 million national windfall and make power cheaper for everyone. Modelling by the Electric Vehicle Council suggests a $3000 government rebate towards vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, chargers would create $4500 in downward pressure on electricity bills Australia wide. So called bi-directional technology allows energy stored in EVs during daylight hours and while power is cheap to be sold back during evening peaks. According to the research, every dollar spent supporting V2G would mean a $1.50 return through lower wholesale prices and a reduced need for additional expenditure on infrastructure. The benefit for participating EV owners would be handy too, with an extra $1000 per year in their pockets for exporting power when demand is high. The council wants V2G chargers included in the federal government's $2.3 billion home battery program and says 600,000 contributing EVs would match the output of NSW's Eraring power station operating at full capacity. There is major potential to make electricity cheaper and help stabilise the energy grid, according to CEO Julie Delvecchio. "Just as Australia became a rapid global leader in rooftop solar, we have the opportunity now to lead the charge in vehicle-to-grid uptake," she said on Saturday. "EVs can store up to five times more energy than a typical home battery." Australia is already home to more than 350,000 EVs or "giant batteries on wheels", with a high proportion garaged in middle and outer suburbia. "With some EVs now around $30,000, the up-front cost is making it more affordable for more Australians to make the switch to cheaper-to-run cars," Ms Delvecchio said. "V2G unlocks the full benefit of EV uptake in a way that helps everyone - EV owner or not." The council is calling for the home battery program to include $3000 rebates for 50,000 V2G chargers by the end of 2028 at a cost of $150 million. It calculates this would create a national benefit of more than $230 million by 2033. A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney and iMove Co-operative Research Centre earlier this year found more than half of all Australians would like their car to double as a battery that could feed power back to the grid. However big changes would be needed to make the process easier. The high price of bi-direction chargers, persistent software issues and complicated installation processes were cited as the main issues. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency issued a V2G roadmap in February that estimated 2.6 million households could be using the technology by 2040 to support the energy grid and save money. Incentives for electric car owners to sell energy stored in their vehicles back to the grid could deliver a $230 million national windfall and make power cheaper for everyone. Modelling by the Electric Vehicle Council suggests a $3000 government rebate towards vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, chargers would create $4500 in downward pressure on electricity bills Australia wide. So called bi-directional technology allows energy stored in EVs during daylight hours and while power is cheap to be sold back during evening peaks. According to the research, every dollar spent supporting V2G would mean a $1.50 return through lower wholesale prices and a reduced need for additional expenditure on infrastructure. The benefit for participating EV owners would be handy too, with an extra $1000 per year in their pockets for exporting power when demand is high. The council wants V2G chargers included in the federal government's $2.3 billion home battery program and says 600,000 contributing EVs would match the output of NSW's Eraring power station operating at full capacity. There is major potential to make electricity cheaper and help stabilise the energy grid, according to CEO Julie Delvecchio. "Just as Australia became a rapid global leader in rooftop solar, we have the opportunity now to lead the charge in vehicle-to-grid uptake," she said on Saturday. "EVs can store up to five times more energy than a typical home battery." Australia is already home to more than 350,000 EVs or "giant batteries on wheels", with a high proportion garaged in middle and outer suburbia. "With some EVs now around $30,000, the up-front cost is making it more affordable for more Australians to make the switch to cheaper-to-run cars," Ms Delvecchio said. "V2G unlocks the full benefit of EV uptake in a way that helps everyone - EV owner or not." The council is calling for the home battery program to include $3000 rebates for 50,000 V2G chargers by the end of 2028 at a cost of $150 million. It calculates this would create a national benefit of more than $230 million by 2033. A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney and iMove Co-operative Research Centre earlier this year found more than half of all Australians would like their car to double as a battery that could feed power back to the grid. However big changes would be needed to make the process easier. The high price of bi-direction chargers, persistent software issues and complicated installation processes were cited as the main issues. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency issued a V2G roadmap in February that estimated 2.6 million households could be using the technology by 2040 to support the energy grid and save money.
Perth Now
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EVs may be the way to drive down everyone's power bills
Incentives for electric car owners to sell energy stored in their vehicles back to the grid could deliver a $230 million national windfall and make power cheaper for everyone. Modelling by the Electric Vehicle Council suggests a $3000 government rebate towards vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, chargers would create $4500 in downward pressure on electricity bills Australia wide. So called bi-directional technology allows energy stored in EVs during daylight hours and while power is cheap to be sold back during evening peaks. According to the research, every dollar spent supporting V2G would mean a $1.50 return through lower wholesale prices and a reduced need for additional expenditure on infrastructure. The benefit for participating EV owners would be handy too, with an extra $1000 per year in their pockets for exporting power when demand is high. The council wants V2G chargers included in the federal government's $2.3 billion home battery program and says 600,000 contributing EVs would match the output of NSW's Eraring power station operating at full capacity. There is major potential to make electricity cheaper and help stabilise the energy grid, according to CEO Julie Delvecchio. "Just as Australia became a rapid global leader in rooftop solar, we have the opportunity now to lead the charge in vehicle-to-grid uptake," she said on Saturday. "EVs can store up to five times more energy than a typical home battery." Australia is already home to more than 350,000 EVs or "giant batteries on wheels", with a high proportion garaged in middle and outer suburbia. "With some EVs now around $30,000, the up-front cost is making it more affordable for more Australians to make the switch to cheaper-to-run cars," Ms Delvecchio said. "V2G unlocks the full benefit of EV uptake in a way that helps everyone - EV owner or not." The council is calling for the home battery program to include $3000 rebates for 50,000 V2G chargers by the end of 2028 at a cost of $150 million. It calculates this would create a national benefit of more than $230 million by 2033. A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney and iMove Co-operative Research Centre earlier this year found more than half of all Australians would like their car to double as a battery that could feed power back to the grid. However big changes would be needed to make the process easier. The high price of bi-direction chargers, persistent software issues and complicated installation processes were cited as the main issues. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency issued a V2G roadmap in February that estimated 2.6 million households could be using the technology by 2040 to support the energy grid and save money.
The Age
9 hours ago
- The Age
‘Game changer': Your electric vehicle can now power your home and the grid
Federal Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen says the government sees plenty of potential in EVs and setting up the grid so the vehicles can be used like 'household batteries on wheels'. 'Our government wants to make sure that Australians can take back control of their energy bills,' Bowen says. 'Whether that's through installing a cheaper home battery, or purchasing a V2G EV, Aussie households are increasingly looking to renewable options that work for them to slash their power bills.' A battery for a modern electric vehicle enabled for V2G charging is 50 to 100 kWh, while a plug-in hybrid battery starts from 20 kWh. A typical home battery is six to 10 kWh, meaning the battery in a typical EV is much more powerful than one on the side of a house. Clarke bought his Nissan Leaf in April 2023 after researching home batteries and realising that the cost per kilowatt hour of storage was significantly lower in a car. 'I got a 60 kWh battery for $60,000, while a Tesla Powerwall costs $15,000 for 13 kWh,' he says. The possibilities are enormous. When EVs become batteries on wheels, a city full of solar on rooftops and EVs in driveways becomes a distributed power plant, making it more possible to switch off the ageing coal-fired power fleet. By the early 2030s, the combined battery capacity of all EVs in Australia is likely to surpass all other forms of storage in the national energy market, including Snowy 2.0, according to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's national road map for bidirectional EV charging. By 2050, the storage in the national EV fleet is likely to be three times higher than the total storage capacity in the national energy market. Yet, the road map notes, the capital cost of enabling vehicle-to-grid technology is a fraction of the cost to build large-scale storage. Loading Electric Vehicle Council analysis suggests EVs with V2G technology could bring down costs for everyone by reducing the need for the highest-price electricity generation and reducing the need for network augmentation to cope with the handful of days a year when the system operates at maximum capacity. The lobby group wants the government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program, a subsidy that started on Tuesday, to extend to the V2G charging infrastructure for EVs. V2G charging requires three things. First, the vehicle needs to be capable and have it enabled. In some models, the capability is switched off or using it would void the warranty. Dr Alina Dini, head of energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council, says three V2G-ready cars imported into Australia are the Nissan Leaf, the Mitsubishi Outlander and Cupra, while there is also the Ford F-150 Lightning made compatible with Australian V2G standards by after-market modifications by AUSEV. Second, the charger needs to be approved by the Clean Energy Council. Finally, the network needs to allow it and the retailer to offer pricing to support it. Things are moving rapidly. Ausgrid, the electricity distributor for much of Sydney, flagged on Tuesday it had successfully plugged a vehicle-to-grid system into its network, enabling a two-way flow of energy that effectively turns EVs into batteries on wheels. Loading Ausgrid's head of EVs, Nick Black, says some retailers have been early adopters involved in testing how it would work, so there are already offers in the market. Black says the technology will be a game changer for the grid, eventually. 'We just need that EV adoption in place,' Black says. 'There's still a low penetration of EVs, and we see that due to a lack of highly available public charging infrastructure.' The company is lobbying the NSW government to change the rules to allow it to directly own and maintain public EV chargers on its power poles, a proposal fiercely resisted by standalone EV-charging companies. Essential Energy, which covers 95 per cent of NSW, said V2G charging for AUSEV's Ford F-150 Lightning was market-ready at the Smart Energy Conference in April, after a long period testing the Nissan Leaf. The power distributor and CSIRO are investigating V2G technology with other car manufacturers. Endeavour Energy, the third NSW network, has also been trialling V2G technology and said it would allow any charger approved by the Clean Energy Council. In Victoria, the company that covers Melbourne and much of regional Victoria through ownership of Powercor, CitiPower and United Energy has been running a trial of V2G charging and is preparing to roll it out more widely. Daniel Bye, Powercor head of customer connections and requests, says the company would treat vehicle-to-grid chargers the same as any other battery connected to the network, and any charger approved by the Clean Energy Council would automatically be approved. 'We're really excited by the possibilities V2X technology offers our customers and the community,' Bye says. (The V2X term includes vehicle to grid, vehicle to home, and vehicle to load – the final one being when you can plug in appliances such as power tools or camping fridges directly into the battery.) Loading In financial modelling by the Electric Vehicle Council, a customer in western Sydney who has an electricity plan with exposure to the wholesale price of electricity (such as Amber Electric) could earn $1000 a year by charging an EV when the cost of electricity is low and discharging to the grid between 6pm and 10pm every day. A customer with a power plan with time-of-use tariffs (such as OVO Energy) could save $500 a year by charging the EV battery when the electricity is free during the day and using it to power their appliances when the price goes up in the evening. 'It's an opportunity for something that sits statically in a driveway or a car park to be a way to help consumers not only save money but potentially even earn from it,' says Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Julie Delvecchio. 'It transfoms what an electric vehicle is, from just a car to a method to support the grid, which I think is really significant.' The Clarkes already had a 10 kWh solar system, but the power bills were still about $3000 a year before they moved to Amber Electric, and the petrol for the car was $3000 a year. A year later, Francis Clarke has a credit of $400 on his electricity bill, after powering both his house and car, despite having driven 26,000 kilometres. As well as the financial rewards, Clarke is interested in the environmental benefits. 'I'm naturally interested in saving carbon whenever I can, and I think I've done the right thing in my farming and forestry businesses, too, with all the trees I've planted,' Clarke says. 'I've been aware of that for a long time, and it's nice now that I can have a car and run it virtually carbon-free. Saving money is a good thing, but knowing you're doing the right thing by the environment is also a good thing.'
