Key Points
- Greens leader Adam Bandt has announced his party's position on Labor's energy relief package.
- He confirmed the Greens will support the legislation when parliament is recalled.
- He described it as a "bad day to be a greedy gas corporation".
Greens leader Adam Bandt has announced his party will work with Labor on the government's energy relief package.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, Mr Bandt confirmed the Greens will support the legislation when parliament is recalled on Thursday to debate the legislation.
He said the two parties would work together to help households and businesses to switch over from gas to cleaner and cheaper appliances.
"The Greens have secured a significant package that will help meet the costs households and businesses to switch over from dirty and expensive gas to cleaner and cheaper appliances and that could save households hundreds, if not thousands of dollars," he said.
"These will be savings that will last for a lifetime. The government has committed to developing a significant package of measures in next year's budget, and they will work with the Greens in development of those measures."
Under the plan, gas will be temporarily capped for 12 months at $12 per gigajoule, while coal would be capped at $125 per tonne.
The plan also includes $1.5 billion provided by the federal government for energy bill relief measures, with state and territory governments to pay money to eligible households and small businesses.
Mr Bandt said the Greens will push for a freeze on power bills for the next two years and will not be supporting any money going to compensation for coal corporations.
"We will not be supporting any legislation that tries to give compensation to these coal corporations; I'll be opposing that and arguing instead that money should be going direct to people, not to the coal corporations," he said.
"It is a good day for people, a good day for bringing down power bills and a bad day to be a greedy gas corporation."
Energy minister Chris Bowen said the government was acting in the national interest.
"These are unprecedented and difficult times and this is decisive action, it is our job to act in the national interest," he said.
"These price rises were not brought about by the actions of Australian people or industry, they were brought about by [Russian president] Vladimir Putin and Australia being ill-prepared for such a crisis because of 10 years of policy dysfunction ... we are fixing this as we did last week with the capacity mechanism as we are with all the other reforms."
This is a developing story and this article will be updated.
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