Australia’s foreign minister has urged Iran to give up its nuclear program as fears grow its conflict with Israel will intensify into full-scale war.

As speculation grows the US is preparing to enter the fray, Penny Wong said Iran had a responsibility to negotiate for a deal to end the missile attacks against Israel.

“What we want to see is this situation resolved by Iran’s actions,” she said on Wednesday.

“Iran must come to the table.

“Iran must stop any nuclear program – that is the fastest way out of danger for the globe, for the region and for the Iranian people.”

More than 1000 Australians have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to be evacuated from Israel.

A further 870 Australians and their family members have requested help to leave Iran as missile strikes between the two countries intensify.

The barrage of attacks has hampered evacuation efforts because of air space being closed.

Senator Wong said Australia and other allies were urging Iran to shut down its nuclear programs.

“Ultimately, the Iranian regime has to make a decision about whether it is going to continue down a path that is so perilous,” she said.

“The world has been clear that any nuclear weapons program by Iran is a risk, a threat to global peace and security, as well as the security of the region.”

The conflict began on Friday after Israel moved to wipe out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.

US President Donald Trump met with his national security council on Wednesday morning, Australian time, after claiming he knew where Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.

The president has demanded Iran unconditionally surrender.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the federal government was closely monitoring Mr Trump’s statements.

“The US president has signalled that he wants a deal,” he said.

“There is broad international support for a return to dialogue and diplomacy.

“It’s a perilous place the Middle East right now. It’s a perilous time for the global economy.”

The situation in the Middle East has also caused great uncertainty for the Iranian community in Australia, which is watching the destruction from afar.

Atefeh, who fled Iran and sought asylum in Australia more than a decade ago, has been worried sick about her family and friends left in the capital Tehran.

Her niece has sent photos of rising smoke plumes taken from a window of their family home.

“We’re the only ones here, my husband and two kids, and we can’t do anything for them,” 40-year-old Atefeh, whose surname has been withheld out of concern for her family’s safety, told AAP.

“It’s so stressful, we don’t know what’s going to happen to them.

“It doesn’t matter where you live, downtown or elsewhere, government facilities are everywhere and they’re being attacked.”

One of her relatives survived an Israeli attack on a government building he worked in because he was on annual leave, she said.

Another relative is in the thick of the turmoil, working as a firefighter on the front line.

She and her husband are agonisingly close to receiving their Australian citizenship after spending years in immigration detention centres, followed by bridging visas and permanent protection visas.

The Washington-based group Human Rights Activists said it had identified at least 585 deaths in Iran since the conflict began, while 24 people were reported killed in Israel.

It launched the air and missile bombardment after saying it had concluded that Iran, which has long threatened the Israeli state, was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

Tax reform is “crucial” to addressing Australia’s economic challenges, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said in his strongest signal yet on the thorny issue.

Boosting stagnant productivity, bringing the budget back into balance, and making the economy more resilient are the treasurer’s main three priorities this term, he revealed on Wednesday in his first major speech since Labor’s landslide election win.

Dr Chalmers previously flagged changes to competition and regulatory frameworks to fix Australia’s productivity slump but had shied away from commitments to additional tax reform, beyond those the government took to the May 3 poll.

But calls for reform have grown louder as an ageing population erodes the tax base and places increasing demands on health and aged care spending.

“This evolution in our revenue base is one of the reasons tax reform is so crucial to budget sustainability, on top of restraining spending, finding savings and working on longer-term spending pressures,” Dr Chalmers told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“But tax reform is bigger than just managing the difficult balance between spending and collecting.

“It’s also about lifting productivity and investment, lowering the personal tax burden and increasing the rewards from work, creating a more sustainable, simpler system to fund vital services, and improving intergenerational equity.

“No sensible progress can be made on productivity, resilience or budget sustainability without proper consideration of more tax reform.”

The treasurer will convene a productivity roundtable from August 19-21, bringing together government, employers, unions, civil society representatives and experts to “shape the direction for long-term economic reform”.

Dr Chalmers has not confirmed whether Opposition Leader Sussan Ley or shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien will be invited to the roundtable, but the limited space in the 25-seat cabinet room where it is being held will keep the attendance list concise.

The roundtable will be a “genuine attempt” to build consensus, after business groups felt 2022’s Jobs and Skills Summit was used by Labor as a way to rubber-stamp unions’ wishlist for workplace reforms.

The treasurer promised to consider any good ideas, but rolling back Labor’s changes to industrial relations laws – including multi-employer bargaining – are unlikely to be on the table.

“The solution to these challenges is not to torch workers’ rights and benefits,” he said.

“Lifting productivity is about empowering workers and making the most of our human capital, teaching and training them to adapt and adopt technology.”

Cutting the company tax rate or providing more tax incentives for business investment are expected to be at the top of priority lists for business groups, after the issue was floated by Productivity Commissioner Danielle Wood.

Dr Chalmers said he would continue to work with states and territories on the future of road user charging, with electric vehicles threatening crucial revenue for road maintenance collected through the fuel excise.

Dr Chalmers said Australia’s economy has made good progress in recent years, with inflation down and growth prospects improving, but the nation needed to recognise “three blunt truths” standing in the way of higher living standards.

“Our budget is stronger, but not yet sustainable enough,” he said.

“Our economy is growing, but not productive enough.

“It’s resilient, but not resilient enough – in the face of all this global economic volatility.”

Weak productivity growth is a major problem for advanced economies around the world.

“Too often it’s seen as a cold, almost soulless concept when it’s really the best way of making people better off over time, creating more opportunities, making our economy and our society more dynamic,” the treasurer said.

In Australia, labour productivity has stagnated since the COVID-19 pandemic but has been slower than trend for more than a decade.

The latest economic growth figures showed activity slowed in the year to March to 1.3 per cent.

Optus is on the hook for a $100 million fine after it pressured Aboriginal customers in remote regions into buying phone products they did not need or want.

The nation’s second-biggest mobile operator has admitted to engaging in “unconscionable conduct” after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched court action.

“In many instances, the consumers did not want or need, could not use or could not afford what they were sold, and in some cases consumers were pursued for debts resulting from these sales,” the commission said on Wednesday.

It said many vulnerable customers were among the 400-plus victims across 16 stores between August 2019 and July 2023 pressured into buying phones.

The consumer watchdog specifically pointed the finger at Optus for deceiving Indigenous Australians in regional, remote and very remote areas.

Other customers who purchased unwanted products included people with diminished cognitive capacity, unemployed, having limited financial literacy or English not being a first language. 

The watchdog and Optus will jointly ask the Federal Court to impose a total penalty of $100 million for breaching consumer law, but it is up to the court to decide the final fine.

The national peak communications consumer body said the fine would represent one of the largest consumer law penalties in Australian history.

“Unconscionable conduct is a high bar and one that Optus has spectacularly surpassed in its behaviour preying on some of our most vulnerable communities and consumers, including Indigenous communities,” Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief executive Carol Bennett said.

Optus CEO Stephen Rue said the company’s misconduct was inexcusable and unacceptable.

“I would like to sincerely apologise to all customers affected by the misconduct in some of our stores,” Mr Rue said.

“Optus failed these customers, and the company should have acted more quickly when the misconduct was first reported.”

Examples of the misconduct also included sales staff failing to point out whether Optus even had coverage in remote areas where they lived, failing to explain the financial obligations involved in contracts and misleading users into believing certain goods were free.

“The conduct, which included selling inappropriate, unwanted or unaffordable mobiles and phone plans to people who are vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage, is simply unacceptable,” commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.

“Many of these consumers who were vulnerable or experiencing disadvantage also experienced significant financial harm.”

Ms Lowe said the commission was particularly concerned Optus used debt collectors to pursue some customers after it had launched internal investigations into the sales conduct.

She noted the telco’s actions caused “significant emotional distress and fear”.

Financial counsellors said the case was further proof the telco sector needed stronger, enforceable regulation.

“Fines are important, but what we really need is structural reform and genuine cultural safety built into how businesses engage with First Nations communities,” Financial Counselling Australia’s First Nations policy director Lynda Edwards said.

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Australia is one step closer to strengthening co-operation and security with the EU, but uncertainty remains on when a trade deal with the bloc will be signed off.

The cancellation of Donald Trump’s much-anticipated talk with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shifted the spotlight from Australia’s relationship with the US, to its alliance with the European Union.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday (AEST) revealed he would begin negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the EU.

The announcement followed a trilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada.

The partnership would strengthen co-operation on global security challenges between Australia and the EU.

Officials from the EU and Australia are expected to conclude discussions “pretty quickly”, and Mr Albanese said it would be an important framework for co-operation in areas like defence and counterterrorism.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong had been working on a potential agreement for some time, with Mr Marles meeting the bloc’s High Representative for Security Policy Kaja Kallas at a recent dialogue in Singapore.

The EU already has similar partnerships with seven other countries, including Japan, South Korea and the UK.

On the other hand, Australia’s long-stalled trade agreement with the bloc is still some ways away, though talks have resumed.

“We have been getting closer and I think at this time it would send a very important signal about the importance of free and fair trade,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Calgary.

The EU was Australia’s third-largest trading partner in 2022/23, with two-way trade valued at $106 billion.

Negotiations over the proposed free trade agreement first began in 2018 but have been held up by several points of contention.

Australia has urged the EU to drop or reduce its tariffs on all agriculture exports, but trading bloc is concerned by Australian producers using terms like prosecco or feta for products that did not originate from specific regions in Europe.

The prime minister hopes to get face time with Donald Trump “soon” after playing down the US president’s decision to cancel a highly anticipated one-on-one.

Anthony Albanese’s plan to meet Mr Trump on the last day of the G7 Leaders’ summit in Canada’s Alberta province was upended when the president left early due to the escalating situation in the Middle East.

But the two may not have to wait long for their next opportunity.

Mr Albanese said he was considering attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit at The Hague, where the president is expected to appear at the end of June.

“We’ll meet soon and I’m sure that will occur,” he told reporters in Calgary on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEST).

“From time to time, meetings are rescheduled – that’s what happens.

“There’s important things happening and that’s understandable at the moment.

“I’m mature about these things.”

The prime minister was scheduled to meet with the leader of the free world on Tuesday afternoon, but 24 hours before their first face-to-face Mr Trump revealed he would leave the G7 summit early.

The event would have been Mr Albanese’s first in-person opportunity to try to negotiate a tariff exemption as Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products incur a 50 per cent levy.

Instead, the prime minister had two meetings with members of the president’s senior economic team.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Mr Albanese and Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

They discussed trade, tariffs, and Australia’s critical minerals and rare earth minerals, which could be used as a bargaining chip.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister was also expected to advocate for AUKUS in his meeting with Mr Trump.

There is some hope the US won’t try to mothball the deal after Mr Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the agreement following their bilateral meeting.

Many others in attendance at the summit had also lined up chats with Mr Trump.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was also hoping to have her first in-person talk with Mr Trump, but spoke to the president on the phone after her meeting was cancelled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had scheduled discussions with the US president on Tuesday.

The diplomatic show continued without its biggest star.

Mr Albanese’s talks with other world leaders went ahead, with the prime minister also holding conversations with Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the UK prime minister.

But the absent Republican and his controversial policies continued to cast a shadow over other discussions.

“We’re a trading nation and a theme that we had in all of those discussions was the support for free and fair trade, as well as the support for economic growth at a time which has been turbulent,” Mr Albanese said.

The prime minister also met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Mark Rutte in recent days.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government shouldn’t have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

Almost 2000 Australians want to be evacuated from Iran and Israel, as missile attacks in the Middle East countries intensify.

As speculation grows that the US is preparing to enter the conflict, more than 1000 Australians have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for help to leave Israel.

A further 870 Australians and family members want to leave Iran, after the conflict began on Friday as Israel tries to wipe out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Labor government was examining its options, but evacuations were proving difficult due to airspace being closed.

“We’re obviously working very closely with those Australians via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“We’re monitoring developments in that very dangerous part of the world very closely.

“Our major focus is on the human cost of this escalating conflict, there are economic costs as well, we’re monitoring both of those things.”

The treasurer said Australia and other countries were examining President Donald Trump’s statement about the conflict.

Mr Trump met with his national security council on Wednesday morning, Australian time, after claiming he knew where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.

The president has demanded Iran to unconditionally surrender.

“The US president has signalled that he wants a deal. I think there’s a broad, there is broad international support for a return to dialogue and diplomacy,” Dr Chalmers said.

“It’s a perilous place the Middle East right now, it’s a perilous time for the global economy.”

The situation in the Middle East has caused uncertainty for the Iranian community in Australia watching the destruction of their country.

Atefeh, who fled Iran and sought asylum in Australia more than a decade ago, has been worried sick about her family and friends left in capital Tehran.

Her niece has sent photos of rising smoke plumes, from her viewpoint out a window of their family home.

“We’re the only ones here, my husband and two kids, and we can’t do anything for them,” 40-year-old Atefeh, whose surname has been withheld out of concern for her family’s safety, told AAP.

“It’s so stressful, we don’t know what’s going to happen them.

“It doesn’t matter where you live, downtown or elsewhere, government facilities are everywhere and they’re being attacked.”

One of her relatives survived an Israeli attack on a government building he worked in due to being on annual leave, she said.

Another relative is in the thick of turmoil, working as a firefighter on the front line.

She and her husband are agonisingly close to receiving their Australian citizenship after spending years in immigration detention centres, followed by bridging visas and then permanent protection visas.

For her husband, a member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority long discriminated against because of their ethnicity and religion, watching the decimation of infrastructure under the weight of Israeli bombs is doubly hard.

“When the Taliban came they went to Iran and now in Iran the situation is very difficult at the moment so they can’t feel safe.”

She said even though many Iranians are against the hardline government, it does not justify Israeli aggression.

“We don’t want innocent people killed, hospitals hit, children dying … this is a war between governments and ordinary people are in the middle.”

Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed.

Israel launched its air war after saying it had concluded that Iran, which has long threatened the state, was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

US President Donald Trump says Japan is being “tough” in trade talks and the European Union had not yet offered what he considers a fair deal, as a team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed at the G7 meeting in Canada to keep working on trade issues after Trump’s early departure.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the EU would need to offer the United States “a good deal” or face higher tariffs.

Trump spoke after leaving the G7 summit early, in order to focus on the Middle East. 

He told reporters Bessent was staying on in Kananaskis, Alberta, to keep talking with counterparts on trade.

White House officials said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting with their counterparts. 

They said Trump met informally with all G7 members but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week.

“We’re talking but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump said of the EU. 

“They’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they have to pay.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect on July 9 after a 90-day pause.

“It’s complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings,” she said.

Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between the US and Japan.

“They’re tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we’re just going to send a letter saying ‘this is what you’re going to pay, otherwise you don’t have to do business with us’. But there’s a chance,” he said.

Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the US.

“We’re going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That’s going to bring all the companies back into America,” he said. 

“It’s going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in.”

Matthew Goodman, a former senior US official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a “stretch goal” for Trump to reach any deals at the G7 summit beyond finalising the terms of a limited deal with the United Kingdom.

The US-UK deal, announced by Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 summit, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on UK cars and eliminated tariffs on the UK aerospace sector but the issue of steel and aluminium remained unresolved.

Most other major US trading partners were still in talks to try to cement an agreement with Trump before the three-month hiatus on his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs expires in about three weeks.

“I think July 9 is the real deadline. That’s when the 90-day pause ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground,” Goodman said.

Trump has signalled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the US tariffs they would be facing. 

A trade stalemate often overshadowed by US tariff issues is back in the spotlight after the prime minister’s talks with Donald Trump were upended.

Anthony Albanese’s plan to meet the US president on the last day of the G7 Leaders summit in Canada’s Alberta province was scuppered when Mr Trump announced he was leaving the event early.

But the hole left by the expected US tariffs discussions in Kananaskis has been filled by a push to resurrect a long-stalled free trade agreement with the European Union.

During talks with the German Chancellor, Mr Albanese said he was “very keen on getting it done quickly” and Friedrich Merz immediately offered to help.

“Is there anything I can do to speed it up a little bit?” he said ahead of their meeting on Tuesday local time.

Mr Albanese is also scheduled to talk with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.

The EU was Australia’s third-largest trading partner in 2022/23, with two-way trade valued at $106 billion.

Negotiations over the proposed free trade agreement first began in 2018 but have been held up by several points of contention.

The trading bloc was concerned by Australian producers using terms like prosecco or feta for products that did not originate from specific regions in Europe.

Meanwhile, Australia has urged the EU to drop or reduce its tariffs on all agriculture exports.

Earlier in 2025, global uncertainty driven by Mr Trump and his tariffs had revived conversations, and the US president appears to have helped spark discussions once more.

Mr Albanese was scheduled to meet with the leader of the free world on Tuesday local time, however Mr Trump on Monday revealed he would leave the G7 summit early due to the escalation situation in the Middle East.

The conversation would have been Mr Albanese’s first in-person opportunity to try negotiate a tariff exemption as Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products face 50 per cent levies.

But a spokesperson for the prime minister said the decision was understandable given the situation between Iran and Israel.

Mr Albanese previously said he is “deeply concerned” by the situation and urged all parties to prioritise diplomacy and dialogue.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government should not have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister had also been expected to advocate for AUKUS in his meeting with Mr Trump.

There is some hope the US would not mothball the deal after Mr Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the agreement following their bilateral meeting.

Many others in attendance at the summit had also lined up chats with Mr Trump.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was also hoping to have her first face-to-face talk with Mr Trump, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had scheduled discussions with the US president on Tuesday.

But even without the biggest star of the summit, the diplomatic show must go on.

The prime minister’s talks with other world leaders have resumed, with Mr Albanese also holding conversations with Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba and the UK prime minister.

Mr Albanese will also catch up with French President Emmanuel Macron after a planned bilateral was cancelled due to a scheduling clash.

He has already met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Mark Rutte.

The prime minister’s diplomatic show must go on, even after the departure of its biggest star.

Anthony Albanese’s highly-anticipated plans to meet Donald Trump during the last day of the G7 summit in Canada were scuppered when the US president announced he would leave the event early due to the escalating situation in the Middle East.

But the prime minister can’t afford to dwell on the loss as he prepares for talks with other world leaders.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are scheduled to have formal meetings with Mr Albanese on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEST).

Mr Albanese will also catch up with French President Emmanuel Macron in the margins of the summit after a planned bilateral was cancelled due to a scheduling clash.

Before news broke about Mr Trump’s unexpected exit, the prime minister said he looked forward to all of his talks.

“These meetings I find very useful,” he told reporters in Canada.

“I developed relationships with people by dealing with them in a straight way and that makes a big difference.”

However, the US president’s absence is expected to haunt the rest of the summit as global economies reckon with the impact of Mr Trump’s controversial tariffs.

Having already met with leaders including South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Mr Albanese wasn’t the only politician hoping to line up a chat with the leader of the free world.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was hoping to have her first face-to-face talk with Mr Trump, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also scheduled discussions with the US president.

A spokesperson for Mr Albanese said the decision was “understandable” given the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

The prime minister has said he is “deeply concerned” by the situation and urged all parties to prioritise diplomacy and dialogue.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government should not have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister had been expected to advocate for AUKUS in his talks with Mr Trump, along with trying to negotiate a tariff exemption on goods exported to America.

Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products face 50 per cent levies.

Caps designed to protect power users from excessive price hikes are not working as intended and need refining, the federal energy minister will concede in his first major speech since the election.

A convincing Labor win also has Chris Bowen hopeful Australia can triumph in its bid to co-host global climate talks and muscle out competitor Turkey, with a decision expected soon.

In a wide-ranging address to the Australian Energy Week conference in Melbourne, Mr Bowen will promise changes to the so-called Default Market Offer rules to force retailers to compete harder for customer dollars.

“The DMO was intended to act as a benchmark price to stop the worst forms of price gouging, while leaving the job of putting downward pressure on prices to competition between energy companies,” he will say on Wednesday.    

“However, I’ll be frank. I don’t think it’s working that way and reform is needed.” 

In several states, regulators enforce caps on what retailers can charge households and businesses to protect the hundreds of thousands of customers unable or uninterested in chasing a better deal.

Caps are reviewed annually to reflect the costs of generation and moving electricity around through poles and wires.

In NSW, South Australia, southeast Queensland, it’s the independent Australian Energy Regulator’s job, while in Victoria, the Essential Services Commission sets benchmark prices.

Changes to AER’s price cap mechanism have not yet been locked in, but could include clamping down on what retailers can claim back from customers on their bills.

Mr Bowen said it was hard to defend price caps when 80 per cent of billpayers could be getting a better deal.

“That’s why we have work underway to deliver a better regulated pricing mechanism which will put downward pressure on electricity bills and also ensure the energy market better utilises the huge uptake of rooftop solar and batteries,” he will say. 

Mr Bowen will declare Labor’s thumping election win as a vote of confidence in its energy and decarbonisation policies.

He says it puts Australia in a strong position to secure the rights to co-host the COP31 climate talks alongside Pacific nations.

An announcement is possible at the UN climate meetings underway in Bonn, Germany.

The bid has come under pressure following the federal government’s proposed decision to grant an extension on the North West Shelf gas plant’s operating life.

The project was singled out by Oil Change International in a report showing the United States, Canada, Norway, and Australia are responsible for nearly 70 per cent of projected new oil and gas from 2025 to 2035.