The industry minister has chastised large energy companies for not taking price pressures hitting families and businesses seriously.
Spiking gas and energy bills are hurting the hip pockets of Australians, with pressures set in increase.
Ed Husic says contract gas price offers after an agreement between the federal government and gas companies were just as high, if not higher, than before.
The agreement was supposed to secure supply for the domestic market and put downward pressure on prices.
“LNG exporters … have got influence of 90 per cent of the proven and probable reserves in this country,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
“So, their view is they can keep doing what they’ve been doing. To my mind, it is saying they are not taking this issue seriously.”
The minister said the “tone deaf” actions of gas companies were forcing the government to consider further interventions in the market.
“These companies are just not doing the right thing,” he said.
“The LNG exporters are offering gas to the domestic market at prices they couldn’t reasonably expect on the international market.”
Senior Liberal senator Simon Birmingham says the actions of big energy companies prove the government’s negotiations haven’t been effective, or there were further underlying issues to address.
“In previous years when we sat down as a government with gas companies to ensure effective supply, it has also delivered price benefits,” he told ABC radio.
Senator Birmingham said the war in Ukraine understandably put further pressure on the market than in previous years.
But he said the government needed to get to the bottom of why gas companies weren’t coming to the table.
Mr Husic is touting longer-term reforms to force the hands of gas companies as the prime minister defends his government’s first budget not offering any help to struggling families.
Anthony Albanese says handouts would only add to inflation and drive up interest rates, instead touting greater investment in renewable energy as the answer.
But the government has refused to put a time frame or a number on lower prices.
The prime minister’s pre-election pledge to lower energy bills by $275 by 2025 has been all but scrapped from the government’s talking points.
Asked directly if the $275 figure is still the benchmark target, Mr Albanese said “the guarantee is that renewables are the cheapest form of energy”.
“The numbers are that energy bills will be cheaper when you have more renewables,” he told Channel 10’s The Project.
– AAP
The post Big energy ‘not serious about price pain’ appeared first on The New Daily.
