Greens treasury spokesperson Nick McKim has welcomed measures to cut prices but accused the government of encouraging new gas fields to be developed under the code.
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While Labor is at odds with the Greens on the gas code,Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is poised to announce an agreement with the Greens on water reform on Monday,to ensure laws can be amended to meet a December 31 deadline for changes to rules on water buybacks in the Murray-Darling river system.
Labor promised in 2012 to recover water and boost flows by 3200 gigalitres – more than six times the volume of Sydney Harbour – but is due to fall short of that target by 750 gigalitres,including 450 gigalitres that was supposed to come from federal water buybacks.
Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Plibersek to insert a legally enforceable guarantee in the law to recover the water,going further than the wording of the draft law,which says the government will use its “best endeavours” to do so.
The likely compromise on the 450 gigalitres will clear the way for the passage of the Murray-Darling law this fortnight,but will be fiercely opposed by Nationals leader David Littleproud and his colleagues after years of warnings from regional communities about the damage to their communities from water buybacks.
With many households feeling pressure from inflation and rising interest rates,Health Minister Mark Butler will point to falling costs for pharmaceutical prescriptions to assure voters Labor has a solution on the cost of living.
Butler will release figures on Monday claiming consumers will see savings of $250 million by the end of this year as a result of the government’s new rules on 60-day prescriptions and a cut to the maximum cost of a prescription on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from $42.50 to $30.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will introducea draft law to give the Reserve Bank greater independence and Industry Minister Ed Husic will launch a $392 million scheme to help small and medium employers expand their sales by commercialising their products.
Dutton accused the government of leaving households with higher costs and imposing climate change policies that would shut down reliable power supplies from fossil fuels,using a speech to Liberal colleagues in Sydney on Saturday to take aim at Bowen for his energy policies.
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“We know that the energy regulator is now talking about a situation where there could be disruption to supply over the course of this summer,” Dutton said. “So in the 21st century,in our country,we’re de-industrialising.”
Bowen and Resources Minister Madeleine King will announce the gas deals on Monday with a claim that their policies are helping to “keep gas prices low” and will “keep a lid on prices” by increasing supply.
The government is basing its claims on estimates that the wholesale gas price is currently $12.29 per gigajoule,down from $31.76 at the time of the last election.
Energy Consumers Australia estimates the annual electricity bill for small and medium employers rose by 18 per cent over the year to April 2023,while gas bills for similar employers rose 22 per cent.
Wholesale spot electricity prices across the east coast grid averaged $63 per megawatt hour in the September quarter,a 71 per cent fall from the same time last year,according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Bowen has pointed to the falling wholesale price to assure voters Labor is acting on the cost of living and that the electricity sector’s default market offer will cut costs for households when it is released in February.
“I know people don’t pay wholesale prices,but they do flow through to retail prices in some form down the track,” he told the ABC’sInsiders program,adding this meant the default market offer would be “substantially less” than seen last year.
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