Labor to turn heat down on gas prices

Anthony Albanese is moving to put downward pressure on prices, amid union criticism it has not done enough to help manufacturers.

Anthony Albanese has faced rising criticism over high gas prices. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Philip Gostelow

Anthony Albanese is moving to revamp the gas industry’s code of conduct to put downward pressure on prices, as unions say the government has not done enough to bring energy costs down for manufacturers.

The Australian understands the federal government is assessing inserting a price provision in the industry code created by the Morrison government, which was mostly focused on ensuring gas producers provided enough supply for the domestic market.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton condemned Resources Minister Madeleine King for striking a “dud” heads of agreement with gas producers to provide an extra 157 petajoules of gas to the east cost market in 2023.

“It’s infuriating that a Labor minister could champion the exact same kind of dud handshake agreement struck by the Turnbull government,” he said.

“The government has a choice: defend the insane super profits gas exporters are making from the Ukraine war or defend the future of Australian manufacturing and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports. I can’t believe this is apparently a head-scratcher for Labor.

“The federal government has rightly stated it wants Australia to become a manufacturing powerhouse. There’s zero chance of that happening while it maintains this stance on gas.”

He said it was time to implement a “trigger” forcing gas exporters to redirect supply to Australia if prices were too high.

The government has been considering reforming the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism so the export trigger can be invoked when prices are high, rather than its existing function to ensure there is enough supply.

A spokesman for Ms King said the heads of agreement was a “significant improvement on the deal done by the previous government … (It) will strength­en confidence in the domestic gas market and safeguard our global reputation as a stable and reliable exporter to our regional partners. The Minister for Resources, the Industry Minister (Ed Husic), the Energy Minister (Chris Bowen) and the Treasurer (Jim Chalmers) are working closely to see what can be done beyond the near-term updating of the heads of agreement.”

Mr Husic, who has been leading the charge for tougher action against gas producers, said the government wanted to stop long-term contracts being sold to domestic users at higher prices than international competitors.