‘Stare them down’: Malcolm Turnbull demands action on gas

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is calling for urgent action to solve a crisis, warning the move will be “resented bitterly”.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on the Albanese government to work with the states to impose export controls on gas.

Mr Turnbull said the LNG giants would quickly capitulate and find cheaper gas to solve the energy crisis in the eastern states.

“This will involve imposing force majeure on contracts,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.

“It’ll be resented bitterly by the industry ... but we have a crisis at the moment, and hopefully, it won’t go on for too long.

“The minute they say they’re going to do it, the gas companies will find the gas ... they will agree to offer it at lower prices.”

Mr Turnbull called on the government to work with the states and the National Energy Market to impose gas export volume and price controls for a period of 90 days.

“So in other words, make sure that all the gas we need is available here,” Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull called on the government to “stare down” gas companies.

Mr Turnbull said the last thing gas companies wanted was the precedent of imposing regulation.

“But unless you’re prepared to stare them down ... we’ll have the situation where we have electricity prices or wholesale prices $400 a megawatt hour and higher,” he said.

The former prime minister also defended the so-called gas “trigger” created under his government in 2017, which Labor wants to overhaul.

“It was designed to deal with a different problem at a different time and it worked,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It wasn’t useless, it was very useful.”