In case you wondered why...

In case you wondered why .................................

Albanese leaves door open to temporary coal, gas tax

Returning to the prime minister’s ABC radio interview from earlier this morning, and Anthony Albanese was asked whether a temporary tax on gas and thermal coal is on the cards.Presenter Sabra Lane wanted to know: How prepared is Labor for pushback from the sector?

Well, what we know is that we can’t just sit back and watch while energy prices go through the roof for households and for businesses. And that could undermine the manufacturing sector, it’s already placing extraordinary pressure on it. We are trying to work through these issues. We want to work in a cooperative way. But we need to acknowledge that there are extraordinary profits being made at the same time as the customers are really doing it tough.And here was Albanese’s reply when pressed to confirm the temporary tax:No, well, we’re working through issues. Our preference is not that, but we’re working through the issues constructively. We’re working that through with departments, we’re working that through as well with states and territories. We need to acknowledge that in half of the states, we’re literally talking about state-owned assets involved here. So the states and territories will need to be engaged here, particularly in NSW and Queensland. But we also are working through constructively with the sector, and we’re hopeful of getting an outcome. We’ve said that our timeline is the end of this year, and that remains the timeline.