Coffee hot topic as Canberra gears up for election fought on cost of living

The rising price of a cup of coffee is emerging as a hot topic in Canberra as Labor and the Coalition gear up for an election dominated by the cost of living.

Industry experts have warned Australians could be forking out $8-$12 for a morning brew by the end of 2025.

Currently, the national average is $4.83.

Senior Labor minister Murray Watt on Monday said he had noticed a price bump.

“I noticed the price of coffee going up myself,” Senator Watt told Seven’s Sunrise, appearing opposite Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce.

“The price surge is in part due to global supply pressures.

“That’s partly because of the price of coffee beans worldwide going up.”

Indeed, global supply pressures have pushed the price of beans up.

Drought in major coffee-producing countries, such as Brazil, has severely impacted yields.

But conditions at home have become tougher, too, with cafes weathering higher energy bills and milk prices.

“This is why we’ve worked so hard to try to bring inflation down,” Senator Watt said.

“More than halving what it was when we came to office, providing that cost-of-living relief that Barnaby and Peter Dutton voted against.

“Things would’ve been worse if Peter Dutton and Barnaby had their way.

“We’ll work hard to help people with cost of living.”

But Mr Joyce took a different view.

The Coalition attack dog instead put the blame squarely on energy costs, taking aim at the Albanese government’s renewables plan.

He accused Labor of “denying reality” that power prices have “gone through the roof”.

“If you’re going to run the nation on intermittent power, on swindle factories, wind turbines and solar panels, this is not gonna change,” he said.

Mr Joyce said it came down to “physics and economics”.

“Physics is just not possible, economics, that you can’t afford it,” he said.

“And here’s just another very small example.

“And a cup of coffee, it’s just implausible that power is so much of the componentry of that cost and the Labor Party just stands behind this ridiculous idea that they’re going to run the nation on intermittent power, which really underpins their economic credibility.”

Senator Watt quipped back: “Imagine what you’re paying when you are paying for nuclear power.”

The Coalition has long spruiked its plan to take Australia’s power grid atomic as a more reliable, cheaper way of reaching Australia’s net-zero goal.

But most energy and policy experts, including within the national science agency and energy operator, have said it would take decades and could cost double the current renewables course.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume admitted last week that Australians would not see an immediate drop in their power bills if the Coalition won this year’s general election.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also failed to say how the Coalition would immediately help households struggling.

With the clock ticking for Anthony Albanese to call the federal vote, both Labor and the Coalition are under pressure to get their visions across to cash-strapped Australians.