Gas Price Cap, page-28

From 'The Australian' online 16 January 2023:

(well done Liberal/National Coalition!):

Liberal MP Dan Tehan says the wholesale price cap on gas should be scrapped immediately following revelations multiple energy retailers have stopped taking new gas customers and others are ramping up their prices.

Mr Tehan, speaking on Sky News, said the federal government needs to "go back to the drawing board" on its energy policy, which was legislated in late December, because it has "put upward pressure on prices and limited supply even further".

"Over Christmas, their policy is now deemed a failure, so they've got to immediately reverse it and we all know that the only way you're going to do that is to get more supply into the market," he said.

"Now, if they started signalling that that is their number one intention this year, then you would start to see those prices come down and that's what we want to see. We want to (send) those signals into the market that will drive prices down."

After passing its emergency energy legislation, the federal government capped new contracts for wholesale gas in the east coast market at $12 a gigajoule for 12 months.

When asked specifically whether the price cap needed to be modified or scrapped, Mr Tehan said: "(It) should be scrapped and they need to look at getting more gas into the market."

"We know the issue is supply. That is the one thing that will drive prices down," he continued.

"They've got to reverse those policies which were designed at limiting supply and they've got to be doing everything they can, working with the states and territories, to get more gas onto the market. That is the only way this will be fixed."