Australians have dug ever deeper into their pockets as the cost-of-living crisis continues to squeeze households, with eyes on the federal budget seeking hoped-for relief.

The federal government has unveiled an array of initiatives designed to ease the pressure on people in a number of areas, including energy, medicine, rent, and tax.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in his speech that inflation could return to its target range ahead of schedule, potentially by the end of the year.

TWO MINUTE GUIDE: Energy bill relief, rent assistance, and freeze on cost of medicines

While waiting for that burden to lighten, here's where an Aussie household can look for cost of living relief out of tonight's budget.

Power bill relief

From July 1 this year, about 10 million households will receive a $300 rebate on their energy bills, while about one million small businesses will receive a rebate of $325.

The government said in its budget overview that the assistance would reduce headline inflation by about 0.5 per cent in 2024-25.

"In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the biggest shock to global energy prices since the 1970s," Chalmers said.

"We know Australian families and businesses have felt this pain – and that’s why we stepped in to help."

READ MORE: What's in the federal budget for women?

Tax cuts

Under the legislated changes to stage 3 tax cuts, every Australian taxpayer has been promised a cut that will average at $1888 a year – or $36 a week.

A couple working full-time, earning $75,292 and $60,000 respectively, will receive a combined tax cut of $2740.

With two young children attending a long day care centre three days a week, they also qualify for $2430 under last year's new child care subsidy.

Together with the $300 energy bill rebate, their total benefit is $5470.

Medicine price freeze

The government will also impose two price freezes on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The first, a one-year freeze that will take place from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025, will see the maximum payment for prescriptions halted at $31.60 – the current maximum.

A second freeze will apply between January 1, 2025, and December 31 2029, for concession card holders, including pensioners, which means prescription prices will be capped at $7.70 until 2030.

Pensioners and concession card holders make up 60 per cent of prescription holders in the country.

Social Security

Deeming rates will also be frozen at their current rates until June 30, 2025.

This will again largely affect people on an age pension, along with others who rely on income from deemed financial investments alongside their welfare payment.

Rent help

People relying on the Commonwealth Rent Assistance program will see the maximum rate available to them increased by 10 per cent.

As an example, single mum of a nine-year-old, who is not employed, is eligible for an extra $1215 rental help under the new budget.

Student debt

As previously revealed, the government plans to cut $3 billion in student debt, which will affect more than three million Australians.

The Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) indexation rate will now be matched to the lower number between the Consumer Price Index and the Wage Price Index, backdated to June 1, 2023.

That's a change of 7.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent in the second half of 2023, and 4.7 per cent to four per cent in 2024.

A former student with the average HELP debt of $26,500 will have $1190 credited to his account under the new indexation, with the debt as a whole reduced by about $1600. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has handed down his third federal budget, with $7.8 billion in cost-of-living relief on the way for Australian households through $300 energy bill rebates, a freeze on the cost of medicines and further rent assistance. 

Chalmers said the key policies in his “budget for every Australian” are designed to combat sticky inflation while providing respite to those who are struggling. 

The forecast of a $9.3 billion surplus in 2023-24 is a $10.5 billion improvement of the December prediction for the government’s bottom line, but future balance sheets are even further in the red than predicted in the mid-year update.

“This is a budget for the here-and-now and it’s a budget for the decades to come,” Chalmers said in his speech in parliament tonight.

“It’s a responsible budget that helps people under pressure today – and invests in the promise and potential of the more prosperous future we can make together.”

The $7.8 billion in cost-of-living relief includes the already legislated changes to stage 3 tax cuts from July 1, energy bill relief for households and businesses, freezes the cost of some medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and offers another increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance. 

Treasury has forecast inflation could return to the target band of 2 to 3 per cent by the end of the year – much faster than the Reserve Bank of Australia’s predictions – and claims the measures included in the budget will play a key role.

“The government’s targeted cost-of-living measures are expected to reduce inflation, with energy bill relief and Commonwealth Rent Assistance expected to directly reduce inflation by 0.5 per cent of a percentage point in 2024–25 and not expected to add to broader inflationary pressures,” the budget papers state.

But even with inflation improving ahead of schedule, the budget papers do not forecase an interest rate cut until the middle of next year. 

“The cash rate is assumed to gradually ease from around the middle of 2025 to reach 3.6 per cent by the middle of 2026,” the budget papers state.

Not included in tonight’s budget was an anticipated rise in the maximum rate of JobSeeker, something called for by independent government advisers.

Instead, about 4700 recipients who can work up to 14 hours a week will have their eligibility expanded to the highest rate – an increase of $54.90 per fortnight.

While the surplus makes Chalmers the first treasurer to deliver back-to-back surpluses since the Global Financial Crisis and just the fourth since the 1970s, eye-watering deficits are forecast for the coming years: $28.3 billion in 2024-25, $42.8 billion in 2025-26, $26.7 billion in 2026-27 and $24.3 billion in 2027-28.

Chalmers has cited “unavoidable spending” for the future budget blowouts, including upgrades to the myGov system and the $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package, which aims to increase investment in industry, improve supply chains and make the country a “a renewable energy superpower” in the plan to reach net zero by 2050.

The treasurer acknowledged “fraught and fragile global conditions” but said Australia’s economy was among those best placed to thrive.

“This budget shows we are realistic about the pressures people face now – and optimistic about the future,” he said.

“It reflects our biggest ambitions and our highest aspirations to make Australians the primary beneficiaries of a world of churn and change.”

Energy bill relief

The headline new announcement in this year’s budget is $3.5 billion in relief on power bills for households and small businesses. 

From July 1, more than 10 million households will receive rebates of $300 on their energy bills, while around one million small businesses will receive $325.

Medicines

Under a yet-to-be-finalised $3 billion agreement, there will be a one-year freeze on the maximum patient co-payment on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for anyone with a Medicare card. 

“This year and next year, no-one will pay more than $31.60,” Chalmers said.

Pensioners and concession card holders, who receive around six out of 10 prescriptions on the PBS, will see their maximum co-payment frozen for five years at $7.70.

Rent assistance

The maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance will increase by another 10 per cent at a cost of $1.9 billion over five years. 

For families with children, the increases are an additional $70 per fortnight.

It comes after a 15 per cent in last year’s budget, with the government saying nearly one million households will benefit.

Rents have increased by 7.8 per cent in the year to the March quarter.

Stage 3 tax cuts

The Albanese governments rejigged stage 3 tax cuts passed parliament earlier this year, with all 13.6 million taxpayers to receive a cut from July 1. 

On average, taxpayers will receive a tax cut of $1888 or $36 per week, in 2024/25.

The budget papers say by 2034/35, someone earning an average income will pay $21,915 less tax.

“Our tax cuts are better for families, communities, women, and young people, and better for business and the economy,” Chalmers said.

Small business

In addition to the $325 in energy bill relief for around one million small businesses, the federal government is extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off for another year.

Small businesses with an annual turnover of less than $10 million will be able to immediately deduct eligible assets costing less than $20,000 until June 30, 2025.

From July 1, 457 “nuisance tariffs” will also be abolished. 

“This will simplify Australia’s trade system and cut compliance costs for businesses, including small businesses which are particularly burdened by complexity of the tariff system.”

Charlise Mutten was fond of her alleged killer and was excited to be spending Christmas with him and her mother before the fatal visit, a trial has been told.

Justin Laurens Stein, 33, has denied murdering the schoolgirl on or around January 12, 2022, at Mount Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

The nine-year-old had been visiting Stein and her mother, Kallista Mutten, over the holiday break, with the group spending time between a property at Mount Wilson and a caravan at the Riverview Ski Park, about 90 minutes away.

READ MORE: Famous Sydney restaurant Tetsuya's to close permanently

Charlise's grandfather, Clinton Mutten, appeared as the Crown's first witness in the NSW Supreme Court trial on Tuesday.

She had lived with her grandparents from about the age of four after it became clear her mother, who was a long-term drug user, was unable to properly care for her, the jury heard.

Clinton Mutten said his daughter's drug use became worse during her relationship with Charlise's biological father, a union that was marred by domestic violence and ended soon after the girl's birth.

Charlise had "really liked" Stein and on one occasion asked if he thought the accused murderer would be a good dad, Mutten said.

He said she was "happy and excited" about the trip and he was not concerned for her safety despite the couple's history of drug use.

Stein's lawyer, Carolyn Davenport SC, suggested that at the time of Charlise's visit, her mother was continuing to use the drug ice intravenously.

But Charlise's grandfather said he was under the impression both had "cleaned their act up".

The trial heard from multiple witnesses who recalled seeing Charlise, Kallista Mutten and Stein at various times in the caravan park in the days before the young girl went missing.

Caravan owner Rodney Burns said a woman he did not know matching Kallista Mutten's description approached him on January 9 asking if he could buy her cigarettes and a soft drink while he was in town.

Burns said the woman spoke erratically, telling him her fiance had gone to the mountains and she did not have anything to eat or drink.

"She spoke very quick and all over the place," he told the court.

"The conversation just jumped everywhere. I got the opinion she was on drugs."

During his evidence, Clinton Mutten described his granddaughter as an academic all-rounder who loved animals and had dreams of becoming a veterinarian.

"I took her to school, I was the one who sat down at the parent-teacher interviews," he said.

"I was very much involved with Charlise."

Mutten said his daughter had maintained a "very strong" relationship with the nine-year-old despite their distance and would contact her regularly.

"She would look forward to communicating with her," he said.

"It was always there and it was unconditional."

The nine-year-old travelled from the Gold Coast to Sydney in December 2021 with plans to spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with her mother and Stein.

Charlise was reported missing by her mother on January 14.

On the evening of January 12, Charlise was taken back to Mount Wilson by Stein alone, while Kallista Mutten remained at the caravan, prosecutors said.

READ MORE: It's federal budget day. This is what you can expect

CCTV images captured the 33-year-old at a BP service station at Marsden Park, in northwest Sydney, the next day.

He was towing a boat with his Holden Colorado ute, which was also allegedly transporting a barrel containing Charlise's body.

The barrel was found wedged in a tree near the Colo River, northwest of Sydney, on January 18, four days after Charlise was reported missing.

She had been shot once in the head and once in the lower back.

The trial is expected to go for six weeks.

A text message urging you to use or redeem loyalty points before they expire is likely to be a scam, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has warned

There has been a sharp rise in these types of schemes, which appear to be sent by a legitimate company.

ACMA has seen messages urging customers to click a link in order to redeem points from Telstra, Optus, Coles, Woolworths and other brands that have well known loyalty schemes.

READ MORE: Famous Sydney restaurant Tetsuya's to close permanently

The link will take customers to a fake website that imitates the real thing, and often ask them to enter login details or financial information.

However, there are some tell-tale signs to help you spot a scam.

The first is the sense of urgency, any message claiming loyalty points or bonuses are about to expire is likely to be fake.

The second is an incorrect website address. While the site may look legitimate on first glance and include the brand's logo – the URL is likely to have some inaccuracies such as "misspellings, unusual words or random letters and numbers," ACMA said.

READ MORE: 'I shouldn't be alive': Melbourne man survives bite from venomous snake

The best thing for customers to do if they are unsure is to stop and check before clicking any link and entering any details.

If you think you have been scammed, contact your bank immediately, and notify the telco or company the message appeared to have come from.

The scheme should also be reported to ScamWatch.

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Mark Pelley acknowledges that he "shouldn't be alive" today, having survived a tiger snake bite just two months ago.

Renowned as "The Snake Hunter", he is no stranger to the dangers of his profession after spending years catching some of the country's deadliest reptiles.

His luck however finally ran out in March, when a critical failure in his equipment left him defenseless to a tiger snake's bite.

READ MORE: Cars torched, driven into home during 'targeted' attack in Melbourne

He told 9news.com.au he was bitten while responding to a job in Melbourne.

His condition started deteriorating almost immediately.

"My good fortune ran out when the snake bit me. I knew it got me because the pain of the venom was burning me," Pelley said.

"(The venom) felt like putting your hand on a hot oven. Except you can't take it away.

"It was searing pain, throughout my finger that spread up my arm as the venom was travelling through me."

READ MORE: Shelves at some Woolworths stores left bare due to 'terrible' IT glitch

He quickly called triple zero, before driving himself two minutes home, where he received immediate first aid care.

"I remember laying on the floor and I collapsed on the ground. I remember hearing what was happening around me and my sensors were fading," he said.

"I lost the ability to see, I couldn't hear. I couldn't feel any touch or pressure from the ground. Everything was gone. 

"Somewhere very deep inside of me, I had an awareness that I was a single dad of kids who needed me. My daughters needed me. I fought what was happening to me."

His recovery began to show promise after receiving his initial dose of antivenom. But this was short-lived.

"I was drifting away," Pelley said.

"I remember reaching for the nurse's buzzer, trying to signal that I needed help."

The moments following are a blur to him. "I don't remember anything until I regained consciousness," he admitted.

That's when he received his second dose of antivenom, but the venom continued to destroy his body's ability to clot.

"I was bleeding out internally," he said.

"The doctors had to make a decision, they couldn't give me any drugs to handle that because I could end up having a heart attack. They couldn't do surgery on me because I just bleed out even more.

"They gave me about 30 bags of plasma and blood. All night, I had nurses and doctors working on me giving me multiple bags of plasma.

"The only organ at that time that was responding properly to the antivenom that kept going was my kidneys. That's what kept me alive."

After weeks in hospital, Pelley returned home, where he started to relearn simple tasks.

"I lost huge chunks of my long-term memory, including names and places," he said.

"I lost a lot of my hand-eye coordination. I lost so many things. I was learning to do basic activities of daily living all over again."

Fast forward two months and Pelley has already returned to work, even catching a tiger snake yesterday.

"I shouldn't really be alive today," he said.

"I'm extremely grateful to be here and for every opportunity and moment that I have in life with my family."

Tonight's federal budget includes power bill relief for one million small businesses and every household in the country.

Previous programs have been targeted or means tested.

There is also be an increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, for those who are eligible to receive the program.

FEDERAL BUDGET 2024: Everything we know so far

These two measures are predicted to lower headline inflation by half a percentage point in the next financial year.

That will speed up the return to the target range, however, there's no guarantee tonight that the Reserve Bank will see this as the silver bullet to lower interest rates before Christmas, Nine's Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher warned.

Tonight's budget has forecast a $9.3 billion surplus this financial year, a second consecutive surplus and $23.2 billion better than was predicted last year.

"The biggest driver of this second surplus is not commodity prices – it's the resilience of the labour market," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said earlier today.

Additionally, the revised stage 3 tax cuts will begin in July, when a worker on $70,000 a year $27.50 better off a week.

Australians on $120,000 will be $51.50 better off.

‘I’ve proposed the lowest rates increase of any metropolitan council in New Zealand.’

The mother chased after the offender and found her abandoned baby on the roadside.

The case against an ex-SAS soldier accused of committing a war crime in Afghanistan has been delayed after thousands of items of fresh evidence were unearthed.

Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, was arrested in March 2023 after a man complained to the Australian Defence Force that the elite soldier had shot his son in the head.

Schulz allegedly approached the 25- or 26-year-old, Dad Mohammad, in a wheat field in Afghanistan's Uruzgan Province and fired three shots at the man while he was on his back with his hands and knees raised.

READ MORE: Pilot admits 'accidental deaths' of camping couple in court

More than 20,000 items of fresh evidence were brought to the attention of Magistrate Susan Horan when his case was called at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

A police prosecutor requested that the matter be adjourned until both parties have been able to look through the extensive materials.

With a number of interested parties involved and the need to determine what information was classified, the court heard the case was not ready to proceed to trial.

Any documents or other evidence would need to be organised so that it was not "overwhelming" for the parties to understand, the prosecutor said.

Horan agreed to adjourn until mid-September to give both the defence and prosecutors enough time to go through the evidence.

Schulz was released on bail a week after his arrest when a magistrate found he faced a high risk of Taliban attack if he remained behind bars.

He is the first former or serving Australian Defence Force member to be charged with a war crime-related murder.

There were about 40 investigations under way as part of an Australian Federal Police and Office of the Special Investigator joint probe into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, documents tendered in a Federal Court civil case previously showed.

Schulz's case is listed for further mention on July 2.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

If you are a current or former ADF member, or a relative, and need counselling or support, you can contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

The national unit will be up and running from July, Andrew Coster says.