Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged the federal government will do what it takes to ease the pressure, as the Reserve Bank considers a further rate hike this week.
“We’ll examine what we can do to take pressure off energy prices,” Albanese said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the federal government was ”contemplating the kind of steps that governments wouldn’t have contemplated a year or two ago”.
Under consideration is making the optional code of conduct for gas suppliers mandatory and price caps or restrictions to bring down retail prices.
“You can go down the path of tax. You can go down the path of direct assistance to households. We don’t want to rule out those kind of options. But our focus is on the regulatory side,” Chalmers said.
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Opposition Senator Michaelia Cash argued ”you cannot talk about price caps, if you are not at the same time talking about getting supply into the market”.
Samantha McCulloch, chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said supply was the solution to putting downward pressure on prices.
Financial help to pay energy bills is also being considered but with another likely interest rate rise on Tuesday putting more pressure on household budgets, there’s more pressure on the government to take action soon.
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Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the government was “doing everything that we prudently and sensibly can”.
