00:00This is not the news that many wanted to hear as we head towards winter.
00:07The Australian Energy Regulator has released its default market offer for 2025-26.
00:14That's essentially the benchmark for residential and small business electricity prices across
00:22New South Wales, South East Queensland and South Australia.
00:26Delving into some of those figures, New South Wales is looking like the hardest hit with
00:31an increase of up to 9.7%.
00:35Then looking at South East Queensland, a hike of 3.7%.
00:40And finally, South Australia, an increase of 3.2%.
00:45Now, these increases don't come into effect until July 1st.
00:50And it's important to note that not everyone will be impacted by them.
00:56And they are also a worst case scenario.
00:59So consumers are being encouraged to shop around and try to find a better deal.
01:06Meanwhile, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has released a statement today saying that the figures released
01:13are actually lower in some regions than a draft that was released in March.
01:19However, he says the government is fully aware that any increase to electricity prices is
01:26going to put pressure on people who are already struggling financially at the moment.
01:30Now, on another issue, it seems a lifetime ago there was that election and there's still
01:35some consternation about the results in some seats.
01:39There's one, what can you tell us about one seat in Melbourne?
01:43Yes, that's right.
01:44The electoral count drama does continue with the Australian Electoral Commission announcing
01:52that it will do a partial recount in the electorate of, the Victorian electorate of Goldstein.
01:58That's been a really tough battle between Liberal candidate Tim Wilson and Independent MP Zoe Daniel.
02:07The partial recount will involve informal ballots and first preferences.
02:13The AEC announcing that it won't conduct a full recount because that would also include
02:19repeating the distribution of preferences, which has already been completed.
02:24And it puts Tim Wilson ahead by 260 votes.
02:29Here's what AEC spokesperson Evan Keane-Smythe had to say about why a recount is happening.
02:36Given there was a little bit of movement in the late part of that full distribution of preferences,
02:41we think it's fair enough to absolutely do a recheck of the first preferences for those top
02:45two candidates as well.
02:47That distribution of preferences is really thorough.
02:50We're just making sure that we're being really thorough and diligent in everything that we do.
02:55The partial recount will start on Wednesday and it's expected to take four days.
03:01Jo?
