The coalition has misled the public on its energy plan, the prime minister claims, after it released long-awaited modelling on how much households can save on power bills.
The modelling for the plan to reserve gas for the domestic market forecast a modest seven per cent drop in gas and three per cent in electricity bills for households.
Industrial customers are being promised a 15 per cent reduction in gas bills and a forecast eight per cent decrease in wholesale electricity prices.
However, households would have to wait up to a year before seeing any flow-on to energy bills.
Anthony Albanese dismissed the modelling while campaigning in Sydney, arguing the government had already worked to bring down the price of gas.
“The gas policy the coalition has is gaslighting the Australian public. Gas prices were $30 when we came to office. They’re now $13 to $14,” he said on Wednesday.
“These people think that the Australian people are like goldfish, that they don’t remember.”
Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said it would take time for the gas reservation plan to flow through to energy bill reductions.
“We are certainly looking, by the end of this calendar year, that you would start seeing wholesale gas prices coming down,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
“As that … filters through with contracts, then by the end of the first 12-month period, industry, households should be seeing the impact.”
The reduction in energy bills would also be dependent on new legislation setting up the domestic gas reserve passing parliament, if the coalition wins government on May 3.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over Labor’s 2022 energy modelling, which forecast a $275 reduction in energy bills.
However, Mr Dutton has faced questions on the campaign trail to deliver his own modelling.
“Our policy will be a game changer because we can then see the cost and therefore price of electricity, construction, food prices and many other goods start to come down,” he said.
“Gas is critical to our nation’s energy future.”
But Labor campaign spokesman Jason Clare said the gas plan was little more than a distraction.
“This is snake oil … I wouldn’t call it modelling. I call it 125 words of assumptions,” he told ABC Radio.
“This is a distraction, to distract people’s attention from what would be the most expensive policy that any party has ever taken to the Australian people: these nuclear reactors.”
Executive director of the Australia Institute Richard Denniss welcomed the plan to impose levies on gas companies who prioritised exports rather than setting aside the energy for domestic use.
“Peter Dutton is rightfully arguing Australia has an abundance of gas and that all we need to do is to tax gas exports to ensure our gas flows first to Australian businesses and households,” he said.
“This is a big shift.”
But Australian Energy Producers chief executive Samantha McCulloch said the modelling still left unanswered questions.
“The policy would introduce price controls in the east coast gas market and would be yet another heavy-handed intervention that will drive away investment and risk exacerbating the supply pressures in the longer term,” she said.
“Rather than increasing gas supply, the Coalition’s policy risks reducing domestic gas production.”
The gas plan modelling was released on Tuesday night during the first leaders’ debate of the election.
A group of 100 undecided voters gave the win to Mr Albanese.
But one in five couldn’t decide which leader they preferred following the debate.
Energy bills, healthcare and broader cost of living pressures were among the most pressing issues for the voters.
Despite the debate win, Mr Albanese said he was not getting ahead of himself.
“May 3 is a long way away, we are not halfway through this election campaign,” he said.
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