Gas cap and affect on STO?, page-22

From 'The Australian' online:

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the Liberal Party will not support the federal government's emergency energy legislation, labelling it a “witch's brew of disaster”.

Mr Dutton, speaking at a press conference in Queensland, said Australia needed to look at introducing more gas into the system instead of implementing price caps.

“That is the advice that's there from Treasury, from industry and from every economist that looks at this debate. They're all telling the government to put more gas into the system,” he said.

When asked whether by voting against the legislation the Coalition would be voting for higher energy prices, Mr Dutton said: “We're not because the government is not providing any guarantee that you'll see a reduction in power prices or gas prices in what they're doing.”

“If you speak to many small businesses and medium-sized businesses, they're already locked into contracts for the next 12 or 18 months. And this government just hasn't been able to explain how they're going to deliver their $275 cut in electricity prices that they promised on 97 occasions before the last election,” he continued.

“They've introduced this figure now of $230. They can't explain how they've arrived at that figure. And they're taking gas out of the system, not putting more in, which is going to drive prices up. We're not supporting that sort of witch's brew of disaster.”

Mr Dutton said he believes the government is “floundering” by not knowing “which way to jump”.

“The Prime Minister's got the theatre and, you know, the hype of calling back parliament, like that's some big move. But all that will remind people of is that this is a bad government making a situation worse for Australians,” he said.