Just wow:
Soaring energy prices are an ongoing issue and can’t necessarily be solved straight away, Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.
He says the ACCC or AEMO will have the Albanese government’s full support in any action they choose to take.
“At the moment, it is impacting wholesale prices, which is impacting large industrial users. The spot price is elevated at the moment. We have to be clear that this does have the potential to be an ongoing issue,” Bowen said.
“This is an immediate challenge for coming days and it is not necessarily going to get better straight away.
“So it will have ongoing impacts but what I’m saying is the new government is taking, will take immediate action.”
Pulling the gas trigger won’t help in the short term, Energy Minister Chris Bowen says, while not ruling in or out any particular measures.
He says calls to pull the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism to ensure domestic supply misunderstands how it works.
“It cannot come into force until 1 January next year, even if it was pulled today. It is not a short-term answer,” Bowen said.
“There is a process outlined under law of consultation which would have to occur before it could be implemented. It is a supply trigger, not a price trigger.
“For those unnamed anonymous members of the former government who are acting hairy-chested on the way out the door, it is a policy they designed and it is not one designed to deal with the current crisis.”
This is pure and simple policy cowardice. You don’t even need to pull the ADGSM trigger. You only have to threaten to do it and call in the gas cartel bosses.
That act alone will reinforce the social contract that the gas cartel has broken. The ADGSM can be reinforced to work sooner and more fulsomely. It is only a Heads of Agreement.
This is the short-term solution. The longer term is the real problem as Bass Strait runs out of gas and this crisis repeats every few months.
As for ADGSM being about supply not price, that is pure manure.
Labor is lost owing to fear of mining or China, donations from the cartel, or just policy stupidity.
They and us will pay.
