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The Albanese Government is partnering with States and Territories to shield Australian families and businesses from the worst impacts of predicted energy price spikes.

The Government’s Energy Price Relief Plan will:

1. Take action to limit gas prices.
2. Take action to limit coal prices.
3. Provide targeted energy bill relief for households and businesses.
4. Invest in cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy for the future.

We are experiencing sustained and unprecedented pressure on global energy markets. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is pushing energy prices to historic highs all over the world.

In Australia, that’s made worse by nearly a decade of division, inaction and policy uncertainty on climate and energy under the Liberals and Nationals.

The urgent action we are taking with the Energy Price Relief Plan will shield Australians from the worst impacts of price increases, delivering responsible and targeted relief to families, small businesses and manufacturers.

The plan is responsible, targeted and temporary.

It is designed to provide all Australians with a buffer in unprecedented times.

This coordinated national approach continues the Albanese Government’s strong record of working constructively with States and Territories to address problems facing all Australians. It ensures that jurisdictions play their critical role in easing energy market pressures.

In today’s meeting of National Cabinet, the Prime Minister and First Ministers agreed to:

Temporary cap on the price of gas and other measures

Tackling high gas prices by the Commonwealth introducing a 12-month emergency gas price cap, to be set at $12 per gigajoule on new wholesale gas sales by east coast producers subject to consultation; introducing a mandatory code of conduct for the wholesale gas market that includes a reasonable pricing provision, accelerating the introduction of the AGDSM; and boosting resources for the ACCC for implementation, monitoring and enforcement.

Temporary cap on the price of coal

The New South Wales and Queensland Governments are taking action by effectively setting ceilings for the price of coal used for electricity generation to $125 a tonne, with the Commonwealth to contribute to costs.

Impact of these actions

The reality is that due to global circumstances and a decade of energy policy mismanagement, Australians will continue to still see high energy prices for some time.

The average family would be $230 worse off next year if we do not take action with the Energy Price Relief Plan.

Combined, these gas and coal measures are estimated to:

• Dampen predicted gas price increases by two percentage points in 2022-23 and 16 percentage points in 2023-24.
• Reduce the impact of forecast electricity price increases of 36 per cent in 2023-24 by 13 percentage points, preventing a $230 increase that the average Australian household would have seen if these actions were not taken.
• Reduce expected inflation in 2023-24 by around an estimated half percentage point.

Targeted Energy Bill Assistance

The Commonwealth Government will partner with States and Territories to deliver targeted and temporary relief on power bills to eligible Australian households and small businesses that are customers of electricity retailers.

The Commonwealth will establish an Energy Bill Relief Fund with up to $1.5 billion to deliver relief directly to electricity bills.

Commonwealth support will be contingent on the relevant State or Territory matching funding on a dollar-for-dollar basis.

This targeted and temporary support will provide hundreds of dollars of additional bill relief to eligible Australian families and small businesses and help shield them from the worst impacts of rising global energy prices.

National Cabinet agreed to finalise the design and delivery of the energy bill relief based on the following principles:

• Bill relief will be jointly funded between the Commonwealth and relevant State or Territory on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
• Contributions will constitute additional support above and beyond any existing or announced schemes.
• Bill relief will be targeted to households receiving income support, pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders, Family Tax Benefit A and B recipients and to small business customers of electricity retailers.
• Relief be provided as a credit directly on recipients’ power bills.

It is expected that the final details and funding arrangements will be settled by National Cabinet by March 2023.

Investing for a renewable future

Beyond these immediate measures, the Prime Minister and First Ministers reinforced the commitment made by Energy Ministers at the meeting of 8 December, to implement the long overdue Capacity Investment Scheme.

This Scheme will unlock around $10 billion of private and public sector investment in clean, dispatchable storage and generation to ensure reliable and affordable electricity supply and reduce our exposure to high coal and gas prices over the medium and long term.

Over nine years of denial and delay under the previous government, Australia’s National Energy Market saw a decline of 3GW of dispatchable power, or enough to power over two million homes.

Firmed renewables are the cheapest form of energy. The current coal and gas price crisis makes that reality even more stark. Rewiring the Nation and the Capacity Investment Scheme will drive investment in Australia’s future as a renewable energy superpower.

Governments around the country are working together to provide relief to families, businesses, and manufacturers, along with longer term measures that increase capacity and reliability for renewable energy.

The Albanese Government will always stand up for Australian families, workers and businesses, and the Energy Price Relief Plan will do just that.

Prime Minister Albanese said:

“Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We are taking urgent action to shield Australian families and businesses from the worst of these energy price spikes.

“We are working hand-in-hand with our State and Territory partners to find the best outcomes for all Australians; keeping Australians in work, keeping industry going, and making sure that families and businesses can pay their bills.”

The Greens say the Federal Government’s plan to fast-track interns into classrooms would further entrench education inequality while doing very little to solve the teacher shortage crisis in our public schools.

Greens spokesperson on schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said:

“A decades-long bipartisan commitment to the privatisation of education has driven thousands of passionate, experienced teachers out of the public school system.

“Instead of trying to encourage these skilled educators back into the classroom the government is proposing to fast-track non-teachers into schools.

“Not only will this place additional burden on current teachers to support these unprepared trainees, it will lower the overall quality of education in the public system, further entrenching the already-yawning gap between the richest and poorest students.

“There are no shortcuts to saving public education in Australia. The government should be encouraging good teachers back into the classroom by properly funding public education. That means better salaries, lower student-teacher ratios and world-class equipment and infrastructure.

“In a speech today, Education Minister Jason Clare said, ‘I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on who your parents are.’

“I couldn’t agree more. But if Minister Clare’s solution to the crisis in public education is filling classrooms with unprepared teachers and increasing workloads then he’s doing nothing to change that.”

A Greens-initiated Senate Inquiry into the fisheries quota system has recommended an ACCC inquiry into market concentration and potential abuses of market power in the Australian fisheries and the seafood sector.

Australia’s fisheries management system is set out under the Fisheries Management Act 1991 and the Fisheries Administration Act 1991 and promotes the use of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQ) which assign access rights and ownership over fishery stocks. 

The inquiry held hearings over nearly 18 months and collected information on whether ITQs result in good fishing practices. Of particular focus was how the decades-old ITQ system affects community fishers, whether it disempowers small fishers and benefits large interest groups, and whether the system is ecologically sustainable.

Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said: 

“The Greens welcome the release of this important report. This has been one of only two parliamentary inquiries in the last 40 years to scrutinise who actually owns our fishery resources, and if the system is working fairly for the Australian public and fishing communities. 

“The evidence clearly shows that many in the fishing industry don’t feel the current system is working for them, and the Greens believe this report demonstrates a significant opportunity for reform. 

“One of the most damning revelations from this inquiry is that in Australia we do not know who ultimately owns the right to our fishery resources across multiple fisheries – and frankly this is simply not good enough. 

“The committee heard evidence that the fisheries management system is stacked in favour of big quota owners and foreign investors who don’t even fish, while hundreds of smaller fishers are struggling to make a living, or even access fishing rights. 

“I find it disturbing that there is no real transparency on who these big quota owners are, how much profit they are making from buying and trading our fish stocks, or what economic benefits the Australian public is receiving from the commercial owners of their fish stocks.

“The Senate committee received confidential submissions alleging market power abuses, and has recommended the ACCC conduct a broad inquiry into market concentration and potential abuses of market power across the sector, and I implore the Government to respond to this recommendation with urgency. 

“While fisheries quotas were in-part brought in to control overfishing, over half the fishers who made submissions to the inquiry believe the system has had a negative impact on sustainability. Similarly, expert evidence to the Committee revealed more focus was needed on the environmental impacts of fishing and climate change. 

“These are all important findings, and the Greens will be working in both federal and state parliaments to see this inquiry’s recommendations implemented.

The Greens have made additional comments to the Senate Inquiry report. Our key recommendations include: 

• Full transparency on the ultimate beneficial ownership of Commonwealth fisheries quota, so bans or restrictions can be placed on foreign investment in Australian ITQs, as has occurred in New Zealand and other countries. The Greens would also like to see similar restrictions put in place to ban or limit ‘non-fisher’ investment in ITQs (e.g.: by professional investors), such as has happened in countries like Iceland and Canada.
• Make more fishing quota available for smaller and lease fishers, by for example by Governments buying back quota from foreign and other investors, pooling then leasing to local communities at competitive rates, helping maximise economic returns to those communities.
• The Fisheries Managements acts should be amended to give equal weighting to environmental objectives, and safeguarded by having AFMA’s processes properly accredited and subjected to performance review by both the fisheries and environment ministers, as recommended by the 2012 Borthwick Review.
• New public reporting requirements for standardised profitability metrics in ITQ fisheries, including effective subsidies or any royalty payments (rents) paid in Commonwealth ITQ fisheries. This would help guide government policy making to achieve maximum economic returns for the Australian people.

Responding to the Albanese Government’s response to the ‘Samuel Review’ released today, Australian Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“We need immediate action, action must include climate action and stopping the destruction of native forests and habitat. Sadly, this package does not deliver on these points, but the Greens are willing to work with the government to fix it.

“The Greens welcome this long-awaited response to the biggest review of Australia’s environment laws in a decade. The Albanese Government is moving in the right direction. However, the government lacks any sense of urgency to halt and reverse the unsustainable environmental trajectory Professor Samuel described in his report.

“The Greens will not be rubber stamping this legislative reform and will be pushing the Albanese Government to go harder and faster to protect our environment.

“There is nothing in this package to save our iconic koala. There is nothing in this package to protect our native forests. There is no climate trigger, indeed there is very little to address the impact of the climate crisis on the environment at all. The Minister also retains far too much power to influence environmental approvals with no truly independent cop-on-the-beat.

“The timeframe for reform is far too long, and does not future-proof our environment laws. The Regional Planning trials will run until 2028, leaving Australia’s most high-value environmental areas and the wildlife that call them home without protection for years, and well into future election cycles.

“The Albanese Government has missed an opportunity to protect critical habitat right now with a moratorium on land clearing. It remains unclear how the Government will deliver on its zero new extinctions pledge while land clearing is allowed to continue.

“The Albanese Government has missed an opportunity to announce it will establish a ‘Climate Trigger’ to guarantee the emissions from a polluting project are considered in environmental assessments. Without a climate trigger, Australia’s environment laws will remain unfit for the crisis we are in. 

“The Greens consider the package of reforms announced by the Environment Minister to be a floor when it comes to strengthening environment laws, not a ceiling. We will continue to push for an urgent moratorium on clearing of critical habitat, an end to native forest logging and a climate trigger. We will also work to improve the proposed EPA so that it is a true cop-on-the-beat, not just an excuse for the government when it makes unpopular decisions.”