Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Lambie for that question. She is right to draw attention to the rising costs that Australians have been facing for energy. That is one of the reasons that the government has, both in relation to electricity and to gas, put in place measures to try and deal with this. We are committed to doing what we have to do to ensure Australians, Australian households and Australian businesses have access to reliable and affordable energy both today and into the future. In relation to prices, I would make the point that, when we came to office, average east coast gas prices were over $30 a gigajoule and yesterday the average price, I'm advised, was somewhere around $12.30. So I'm making the point that this is a longstanding problem. In relation to WA, obviously for historical and geographic reasons, WA has a separate gas market to the east coast and a separate set of gas policies. The east coast market has experienced larger price fluctuations for many reasons, including reasons not connected to gas reservation policy.

When we came into government, we took immediate strong action on both gas supply and price. We introduced the mandatory code of conduct. We reformed the powers of AEMO to take action to address supply issues before they eventuated. Because of that, the market operator now has the power to manage the east coast gas market, including with powers to direct gas supplies around the system and between states. The gas code, which those opposite didn't support, has now secured more than a 600 petajoules of domestic gas for east coast users out to 2033. That's enough to run east coast gas-fired power stations for about six years. So you're right, Senator—prices for energy, whether electricity or gas, are higher than we would like. We know that Australians are battling the cost of living, and we are— (Time expired)