Australia’s energy market operator this week imposed a price cap on wholesale gas prices and has activated a mechanism to call on more supply amid a spike in demand for heating due to a cold snap and gas-fired generation to cover coal plant outages.

There is a more drastic policy, called the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, available to the government that would require liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers on the east coast to hold back some exports for the domestic market.

However, Bowen said the gas security trigger would not help the current shortage of gas supply, as it involves an annual review which would not take effect until Jan 1.

“It’s not an easy trigger to pull,” Bowen told reporters at his first media conference since being sworn in on Wednesday.

The gas security mechanism, which was designed by the previous government to consider annual supply and demand balances, is not based on a price trigger and requires a range of consultations with industry and regulators for implementation.”It is not a short term answer,” Bowen said.

While saying the new Labor government of prime minister Anthony Albanese would not rule out any particular options to deal with the gas crunch, he said he would wait to hear from energy regulators next week before deciding what steps might need to be taken.

“It is not necessarily going to get better straight away,” Bowen said when asked whether the soaring wholesale prices would feed through to households.