Australian governments need to do more this year to help households with the outrageous cost of living, especially energy costs which are set to rise by around 20 per cent for the second year running.

The federal government has promised an extra $1 billion in relief, to be allocated by the states, but only about half of them have revealed new payments so far.

If you're a concession card holder or a self-funded retiree, chances are there's going to be more help for you this year.

READ MORE: From supermarket shelf tricks to finding special deals: How to maximise your grocery savings

Pensions and other welfare payments will receive a half-yearly increase of 3.7 per cent on 20 March, almost keeping up with inflation.

But Wesley Mission, Foodbank, the Salvos and others are already reporting a spike in people asking for help – many of them mortgage borrowers.

Key Points

• Until 24 March, Victorians can get up to $500 just for visiting their government energy comparison website
• Almost every state now has a website where you can easily check you're getting every payment you're entitled to
• Self-funded retirees with an income under $90,000 can now get a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card which opens up health discounts plus cost of living payments in NSW, SA, WA & ACT.

Here's the government relief announced so far.

VICTORIA

• Up to $500 'power saving bonus' for households (if you're quick).
• Use the Victorian 'Savings Finder' to check what you're eligible for.
• The Victorian government has announced another round of its "$250 power saving bonus" from 24 March, which billpayers get just for visiting the government comparison website compare.energy.vic.gov.au

Top tip

If you've already claimed one $250 bonus, claim another after 24 March. If you haven't claimed one yet, make sure you do so before 24 March, then claim another after that date. When I posted this one on TikTok a few weeks back, it shot to over 200,000 views in a few days and some commenters even said they've been able to claim an extra $250 after moving house: "If you moved houses between when it came out and now, you can apply earlier. Meaning I got $500 from this round and can still claim $250 on 24th."

Meanwhile, Victoria also has a range of other payments for concession cardholders:

• Annual electricity concession (17.5% of electricity usage and service costs up to annual bills of $3000, which equals up to about $500)
• Winter gas concession (17.5% of winter gas bills up to $1734, which equals about $300).
• Up to 75% off council rates

There are also a range of vouchers and discounts on registration, transport and health for eligible households.

NSW

State election promises at least $250 in extra payments. Use the NSW Savings Finder to check what you're eligible for.

The coalition government has promised to copy Victoria if re-elected on 25 March and pay $250 to those who use the government comparison website. 

Labor has said it will give $250, to be matched by another $250 from the federal government, to concession card holders, Family Tax Benefit recipients and self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

NSW also has the following in place already for concession cardholders, families and (unlike Victoria) also for some self-funded retirees:

• Up to $1000 in various vouchers for families.
• Energy Accounts Payment Assistance Scheme: $50 vouchers up to $1600p.a. For households experiencing a short-term financial crisis or emergency.
• Low Income Household rebate $285p.a.
• 'Energy Bill Buster': If you get the Low Income Household Rebate, you can now get a free 3kw solar system or energy efficiency upgrades worth up to $4000 by trading in 10 year's worth of rebates.
• Gas Rebate: $110p.a.
• Family Energy Rebate: $180. For recipients of the Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
• Seniors Rebate $200p.a. For self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). 

Top tip

The means testing for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card went up by about 50% last year, so do check if you can get it.

There are also a range of discounts on tolls, registration, transport and health for eligible households.

Queensland

No change yet to $625 in payments delivered last year 

Use the 'Smart Savings' concessions finder to see what you qualify for.

A $175 cost of living rebate was automatically applied to all energy bills last year and the Queensland government has not yet said whether it will do it again in 2023. 

They also have these payments for concession cardholders

• Electricity Rebate ($372.20p.a.) 
• Reticulated Natural Gas Rebate ($80.77p.a.)
• 20% subsidy on council rates
• Home Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme: up to $720 for an unforeseen emergency or a short-term financial crisis. 

South Australia

Over $700 in energy bill relief so far.

Visit ConcessionsSA to see what you're eligible for or call 1800 307 758.

Like NSW and WA, SA has payments for concession card holders but also for self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

Like QLD, it has not yet announced any increase in payments from last year.

SA also has the following for concession cardholders, low income households and self-funded retirees:

• Energy Bill concession: Up to $241.63 p.a. for Electricity & Gas.
• Cost of Living Concession: $449 for owner-occupiers, $224.60 for renters/self-funded retirees.
• SA Concessions Energy Discount Offer – this special plan from retailer Origin Energy is available only to Concessions customers and offers 17% off electricity and 11% off gas, along with flexible payment plans and no late fees. 
• Affordable SA is a one-stop-shop for information for any South Australian struggling with affordability issues. It is run by The Salvation Army with support from the Government of South Australia.
• There are also concessions for water and sewerage bills. 

WA

No news yet on $400 energy payment.

Visit the Concessions WA website to see everything you're eligible for

Last year, West Australians got $400 from the government to help with power bills and the pressure is on for WA to offer it again this year but there's no news so far.

Here's what they have in place so far for pensioners, concession card holders and self-funded retirees:

• Energy Assistance Payment: $318.37
• Dependent child rebate: $334.77 for one child and $87.72 for each additional chil
• The Air Conditioning Rebate: $68.68 per month for the cost of running an air conditioner in areas that are deemed high heat discomfort locations
• Hardship Utilities Grant Scheme: Up to $960/year for households experiencing financial hardship and at risk of disconnection.

ACT

Pensioners and concession cardholders can get the Utilities Concession ($750 last year, plus a one-off bonus of $50).

The ACT Government says it has more than 65 discounts, rebates and subsidies to help with housing, rates, utilities, transport, health and other services.

Use the ACT 'Savings Finder' to check what you're eligible for.

Tasmania

Tassie has an Annual electricity concession ($574.73p.a. + $119 Winter Bill Buster discount in 2022) and a Heating allowance ($56p.a.) for pensioners and concession cardholders. 

NT

The NT has one of the most generous payments with an Electricity concession (Up to $1200p.a.). 

Don't forget non-government help too

Energy retailers and telcos and banks all have hardship schemes for those who are having trouble paying. If you get onto one of these schemes, you'll be less likely to get cut-off or chased by debt collectors and you might then qualify for other assistance too.

A range of charities and not-for-profits such as Foodbank, Vinnies, the Salvos and Wesley Mission give free food, financial counselling or other assistance to families in need.

Joel Gibson is the author of KILL BILLS & EASY MONEY. He's spent the last two decades hunting down money-saving tricks, hacks and loopholes and sharing them with households via his books, regular media appearances, and on TikTok, Instagram & Twitter.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

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A Victorian man says he has spent months dealing with an Australia Post "nightmare" that began with a mystery signature and ended with him being forced to foot a $2500 legal bill.

At stake was an important document lost in the mail – the deed to the Geelong home of Colin Chapman and his wife.

When the couple paid off their mortgage in November last year, Chapman said he asked staff at the Commonwealth Bank if he could come and personally collect the certificate of title for the property when it was ready.

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"I was told, 'No, we have to send it to you by registered post,'" Chapman said.

Chapman, who runs his own excavation and landscaping small business, told 9news.com.au he was following the tracking information closely on the day the deed was due to arrive at their home.

After getting to work in the morning, Chapman said he checked the tracking number and saw it had already been marked as delivered.

"I called my wife, who was at home, and asked her if she had received it. She told me nothing had come," he said.

Puzzled, Chapman said he immediately went down to the local post office to ask what had happened.

That's when things grew even more strange.

Chapman said he was shown a copy of the delivery signature supposedly signed by his wife at 8.30am that morning.

"I looked at it and said, 'That's not my wife's signature'," Chapman said.

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Chapman said both he and his wife were at home at the time the delivery was supposedly made – but neither heard a knock on the door.

The gate at the front of their property was also locked, making it impossible for the delivery driver to enter, he said.

"We weren't expecting it (the delivery) to come that early and the gate was still locked at 8.30am."

What followed, Chapman said, was five frustrating and stressful weeks dealing with Australia Post's customer service department.

"What I had to go through with Australia Post was just a complete nightmare," he said.

"It took them three-and-a-half weeks just to get them to admit it was lost in transit. 

"They kept trying to say that it was delivered, that my wife had signed for it, and that the driver had dropped a 'pin' outside our house. 

"Well, my wife didn't sign for it – but the question is, who did?"

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"I lost sleep, it was so stressful. I reckon I sent about 60 to 70 emails, and spent 100 hours of my time to get an answer out of them."

Australia Post eventually acknowledged Chapman's delivery had been lost, but there was still the problem of the missing deed.

Chapman said his solicitor advised him a new deed would need to be applied for, along with a supporting affidavit from Australia Post to confirm the first certificate of title was lost in transit.

All up, Chapman estimated he spent about $2500 on legal fees to get a digital certificate of title issued, which he finally received in January. The deed lost in the mail was a paper version.

Chapman said Australia Post had offered just $100 in compensation after his ordeal – but added his dissatisfaction was not just about the money he had lost.

"Australia Post need to be held accountable for all of the stress they have caused us. They have pushed us pillar to post and it seems like all they are concerned with is protecting their brand."

An Australia Post spokesperson said the service was sorry for Chapman's experience.

"Australia Post sincerely apologises to the customer for this issue," the spokesperson said in a statement to 9news.com.au.

"Our processing and delivery teams work hard to deliver every item with care, and the vast majority of items make it to their destination safely. In this instance, unfortunately the item has been lost. We have reached out to the customer to offer compensation."

Chapman's experience with Australia Post comes just weeks after the Federal Government announced it was conducting a sweeping review of Australia Post and the services it provides.

At question is whether Australia Post's unprofitable letter delivery service should be scaled back to allow more focus on its fast-growing parcel service instead.

While Australia Post is entirely government-owned, it is also self funded. It is under obligation to deliver letters to Australian homes five days a week and operate post offices close to homes.

READ MORE: The government cost-of-living payments everyone needs to know about

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Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally announced on Monday that he is "pausing" all social media activity after revelations that he repeatedly commented on posts of nearly nude photos of a young gay model and other LGBTIQ personalities.

McNally, a Republican, initially stated last week that he "had no intention of stopping" when pressed about why he repeatedly commented on racy social media posts by the 20-year-old.

He later issued an apology, saying it was not his intention to embarrass his friends, family or members of the legislature.

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However, the 79-year-old legislative leader has since received national attention — including being parodied on Saturday Night Live — with critics accusing McNally of being hypocritical. Particularly, McNally supported legislation restricting where certain drag shows can take place.

Some of the posts that have sparked the most uproar include commenting on a photo of the man's backside, where he was wearing only underwear, saying "you can turn a rainy day into rainbow and sunshine."

McNally then posted a comment using only heart and fire emojis. In a separate post, McNally posted a heart emoji of the man pulling down his underwear.

"While I see now that I should have been more careful about how my comments and activity would be perceived, my intent was always engagement and encouragement," McNally said in a statement. "For this reason, I will be pausing my social media activity in order to reflect and receive more guidance on the use of social media."

McNally added while he may have made "some mistakes," he disagreed that he had a record of being "anti-gay" and pointed to his opposition of a 2020 law that assured continued taxpayer funding of faith-based foster care and adoption agencies even if those organisations exclude LGBTQ families and others based on religious beliefs.

Yet McNally then pointed to his support of "traditional marriage" and support of bills that "keep obscenity out of the public sphere."

"There is no contradiction here," he said.

McNally, who is from Oak Ridge, became lieutenant governor in 2017. He has been a state lawmaker since the late 1970s.

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Less than a day after La Niña was officially declared over by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), fresh warnings have been issued over a sizzling heatwave set to sweep the country's east.

Temperatures will heat up today and linger above the 30 degree mark for the remainder of the week in New South Wales, which has been flagged as being "in the bullseye of the weather system", and in parts of Queensland's southeast.

The unusually long-lasting hot burst is set to see conditions swelter to almost 40 degrees in some parts of NSW over the coming five days, with Thursday and Sunday tipped to be the most uncomfortable.

READ MORE: La Niña finally declared over, but watch instantly issued for possible El Niño

The announcement has left firefighters on edge after a treacherous string of almost 300 bushfires lashed the state last week.

During last week's heatwave, some 19,000 hectares of land were burnt in NSW's Central West and hundreds of homes were in the firing line.

Today in Sydney's metro temperatures will reach 27 degrees before heating up to 33 tomorrow and 32 degrees on Sunday.

In the city's west, it'll reach 31 degrees today, 37 degrees tomorrow and 38 degrees on Sunday.

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Yesterday, the bureau said that the third consecutive La Niña has officially ended, but immediately issued an El Niño watch, saying there is a 50 per cent chance the latter weather phenomenon will occur later this year."

"The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is now neutral (neither La Niña nor El Niño) with oceanic and atmospheric indicators having returned to neutral ENSO levels," the bureau said.

"International climate models suggest neutral ENSO conditions are likely to persist through the southern autumn.

"However, there are some signs that El Niño could form later in the year.

Elsewhere around the country, it'll be cloudy and 31 degrees with a chance of showers in Brisbane, 30 and rainy at the Gold Coast, 28 and mostly fine in Canberra, 25 degrees and sunny in Melbourne, 28 degrees and partly cloudy in Adelaide and sunny a 28 degree day in Perth.

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The first koala vaccinated against chlamydia has given birth to a joey, bringing hope that the protected animals will help re-populate the vulnerable population.

The vaccine has given hope to zoologists at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital in Queensland as chlamydia in koalas can lead to blindness, infections and infertility, causing further deaths in the already declining species.

The Currumbin Wildlife Hospital is the home of Anne Chovee, the first koala to get the vaccine, and her new joey.

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"We had the two-year mark, which is very exciting, most excitingly because she's got a joey in her pouch now," research supervisor Lewis McKillop said.

"To get the vaccine registered so that any vet who's treating koalas can get it and start to use it would be a major step forward.

"Ultimately what we're trying to achieve is more breeding."

More than 250 koalas will benefit from the chlamydia vaccine, with hopes the jab will increase koala populations.

Koalas were listed as endangered in Queensland, NSW and the Australian Capital Territory in February 2022.

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There are fewer than than 57,920 koalas left in the wild.

There is a possibility that the number of koalas left in the wild has declined to 32,065, according to the Australian Koala Foundation.

Australian researchers say their study of a disease which causes chronic pain and affects one in nine women has revealed new clues about what puts women at higher risk of developing it.

Endometriosis causes chronic pain, infertility and fatigue from lesions growing outside the uterus.

University of Queensland researchers played a part in the largest ever genetic study into the condition.

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They worked with Oxford University in the UK and dozens more teams around the world to discover 42 genetic factors associated with a higher risk of the disease.

Laura Terry explained how it feels to have endometriosis.

"I don't want to walk move eat sometimes it can make you nauseous," she said.

"It can actually knock you down you can have all these sharp spasms that radiate throughout your body."

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Dr Sally Mortlock from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience said they looked at differences in the DNA code in tens of thousands of women.

"We combined data from 60,000 women with endo and 700,000 women without endometriosis," Mortlock said.

"Very little is known about the causes of endometriosis, but studying genetics can give us clues to the biological processes that are the basis for onset and progression.

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"Before this study there were 17 genetic regions associated with endometriosis and now we have 42 regions with much richer data.

"It means we can find out what genes in these regions do and find new drug targets, leading to new treatments."

Until now endometriosis has taken up to ten years to diagnose, but these findings promise to help speed up that process, and improve the quality of life for sufferers plus open new avenues for treatment.

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Profesor Grant Montgomery from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience has been studying the genetics of endometriosis for more than 20 years and said the study was an important step towards improved treatment and diagnosis.

"One of the difficulties with the delay of course is that the disease progresses at least for some women and so by the time they get to treatment you know the disease might be more severe," he said.

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TV star Bindi Irwin recently revealed her long battle with the condition.

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Three people are in a moderate condition, initial reports suggest.

The 2.75m great white Daisy has shown up again after going missing for a month.

A young mother who was killed alongside her two-year-old son in a crash in Sydney's south-west has been identified while her four-month-old baby fights for life in hospital.

Katherine Prahastono was driving on the Hume Motorway at Menangle Park when she attempted a U-turn and collided with a cement truck yesterday morning. 

Both Prahastono and her son died at the scene while her baby was taken to Westmead Children's Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

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"Paramedics and two specialist medical teams worked alongside Fire and Rescue NSW to free the child who was then intubated on-scene before being airlifted," NSW Ambulance Chief Superintendent Mark Gibbs said.

Gibbs said it was a miracle the baby survived the horror incident.

"I think it is hard to believe that anybody did survive that wreckage (from) such a tragic and high-speed incident," he said.

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The truck driver was not injured and has been taken for mandatory testing.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash and will prepare a report for the Coroner.

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Artists and creators still battle to get their ideas funded in New Zealand.