The federal government is keeping the heat on the gas sector, but has yet to commit to concrete steps to tackle surging energy prices (and profits). Following industry minister Ed Husic’s savaging of the industry’s “glut of greed” yesterday, Anthony Albanese today said his government was “prepared to take action” if energy suppliers didn’t cooperate. The PM acknowledged that families and businesses were “hurting” from higher electricity and gas prices, while energy producers raked in “substantial increases in profits”.
The cabinet is meeting next week to discuss potential action, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said last night that a windfall tax on super profits remained an option. That’s certainly what the Greens are pushing for. The party today called for an electricity bill freeze for two years, paid for by a windfall tax. But the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, argued in response that taxing gas companies would not “place downward pressure on gas prices”. Watch this space next week.
