Anthony Albanese is getting squeezed from all sides as he tries to tackle soaring energy costs through temporary price caps on coal and gas.
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The prime minister must convince the Greens his energy market intervention won't compensate fossil fuel giants.
And the coalition has already declared it will vote against the power plan, leaving Mr Albanese to negotiate with members of the Senate cross bench.
His legislation will come before a special sitting of federal parliament later this week.
Tasmanian senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell have signalled they will support the temporary price caps, but fellow crossbencher David Pocock appears more reluctant.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party would engage constructively on the bill.
"We've been saying for some time this is urgent ... we're doing that in good faith and that's a different approach to what the opposition is taking where they're just saying 'no' to everything," Mr Bandt said.
The Greens have also argued power price relief for households and small businesses should be more generous.
The prime minister said the power plan struck the right balance for customers and energy producers.
"We've come up with measures which are responsible, that won't have a negative impact on investment," he said.
"We've consulted about these measures for a long period of time ... we've negotiated with states and territories to achieve an outcome in the interests of the nation."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the prime minister couldn't be trusted and didn't "have the instinct to make calls on the economy".
"If you've got a situation where you have more and more demand in the system for gas and you're restricting supply, the prices will go up," he said.
The relief measures aren't expected to come into effect until the second quarter of 2023, with state and territory governments paying out the funds to customers.
Oil and gas exploration stakeholders have also requested an urgent meeting with the prime minister over the proposal, saying the intervention could reduce gas supply, pushing up prices for households and businesses.
The Australian Petroleum Production And Exploration Association said a draft of the legislation showed the government's intended intervention into the market was so extensive they controlled it in an "essentially unlimited way".
"A price cap combined with the emergence of other damaging measures will ultimately push up prices because they will undermine investment confidence and reduce new supply," chief executive Samantha McCulloch said.
Australian Associated Press
