A cost of living relief package that goes beyond the current measures will be unveiled in Labor’s first budget in October, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says.
Reductions to the fuel excise, tax cuts and welfare prop ups unveiled in the last coalition budget in March are all due to end in the coming months.
Mr Chalmers says the new government is being upfront with people about the cost of living crisis, as he continues discussions with cabinet ministers and the energy sector about how to respond to increasing energy costs.
“Our job as the new government, and my job in the October budget, will be to bring down a cost of living package that encompasses areas like child care, like cheaper medicines, like our efforts to get power bills down,” he told the Nine Network on Thursday.
Mr Chalmers says it would be hard to find the billions of dollars to continue cuts to the fuel excise, and would not commit to pulling the government’s gas trigger – enacting the Australian Domestic Gas Reservation Mechanism – to shore up domestic supply.
“I don’t want to pre-empt any of those kinds of discussions,” he said on a decision to use the mechanism.
“It has its own challenges and it is not immediate. There is a series of processes that we would need to go through.
“We need to be upfront and recognise that there is not one thing that we can do to fix this overnight.”
Pulling the trigger could upset partners reliant on cheaper Australian gas, as prices in the international market spike due to a reliance on Russian supplies, with many long-term contracts locked in at cheaper rates.
“That is one of the challenges that the government and others would have to grapple with if we went down that path,” Mr Chalmers told Sky News.
“I’m not suggesting … we will go down that path. I’m saying that that’s part of the discussions and deliberations that need to happen now.”
The former deputy prime minister also weighed in to the conversation, saying Mr Chalmers needed to pull the trigger if domestic supply faltered.
“If we’re going to run out of gas then yes he should, otherwise you start paying global parity prices for gas and by reason of the war in Ukraine, they’re going to be astronomical,” Barnaby Joyce told radio station 2GB.
“You’ve got to be a realist here, we are going into winter.
“What we have to understand is, to look after people who are doing it tough, we must have affordable power.”
Mr Joyce has also pushed for the government to consider nuclear energy, saying he failed to convince his colleagues of its importance in shoring up energy supply while in office.
“You have to seriously consider nuclear, because the alternative is coming to you in the mail and it’s called the power bill and it’s going through the roof,” he said.
The former Nationals leader also walked back his commitment to the coalition’s net zero by 2050 policy.
“Now every time you pay your power bill, you’re paying for the 2050 target. Every time you pay your petrol price, you’re paying for the 2050 target,” he said.
“I didn’t (support the target), I agreed with the party’s position.
“When it came back to the (party)room I said, ‘I still don’t support that 2050 target’ but the decision of the room is the decision I take.”
