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The Albanese Government has saved tens of thousands of jobs by responding to the AWU’s long-running call to put a stop to spiralling energy prices. Over the past decade Australian industry and households have seen energy bills skyrocket to unsustainable levels as multinational exporters forced them to compete against China and Japan for access to Australian gas and coal. The plan announced by the Prime Minister today will introduce an enforceable code of conduct on the energy market, cap the price of domestic gas at $12 a gigajoule, and enlist the states and territories to cap the price of coal at $125 a tonne. Households will also receive direct compensation towards their electricity bills. “Up until today we were the only major gas-producing nation in the world that did not have a mechanism in place to protect domestic users from unreasonable price hikes,” AWU ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Secretary Daniel Walton said. “The AWU has been calling for a decade to rectify this gross anomaly. The Albanese Government is to be applauded for finally taking steps, to ensure Australians have access to our own gas and coal at an affordable price.” Mr Walton said the AWU’s focus would now move to the Liberal-³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Opposition and the Greens, who have the opportunity to be on the right side of history by supporting the legislation enabling the price cap. “We all want Australia to be a green manufacturing superpower of the future, but that won’t happen unless we look after today’s manufacturing sector now,” Mr Walton said. “Today’s announcement will deliver certainty to the Australian manufacturing industry and the hundreds of thousands of workers who rely on it.” “Yes, the big energy companies will fight tooth and nail to protect their mega profits, that’s what they do. But the reality is that even with these policies multinational gas companies will continue to make extraordinary profits off the back of Australia’s resources. “They won’t give up one extra cent of profit without a whole lot of squealing. But thankfully the more extreme elements of their fear-mongering has been disregarded today.”