Treasurer Jim Chalmers hasn't ruled out imposing a price cap on energy as the government keeps its options open to help ease pressure on households and businesses, which now are facing the highest inflation rate in 32 years.

The federal government is under renewed pressure to deal with a worsening energy crisis after this week's federal budget revealed retail electricity prices could rise up to 56 per cent in the next two years.

Gas prices, which surged after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are also forecast to keep rising.

The Albanese government's first budget resisted the temptation to offer one-off cost-of-living relief, such as energy rebates, in order to avoid fueling inflation.

The annual inflation rate reached 7.3 per cent in the September quarter - the highest level since 1990.

Inflation is set to peak at 7.75 per cent in the final three months of this year, before falling to 3.5 per cent in the following year.

Speaking at the traditional post-budget address to the National Press Club just an hour after those figures were released, Dr Chalmers described inflation as "public enemy number one" and said it was the "dragon we need to slay".

He said that splashing cash in Tuesday's budget would have risked worsening inflation, which would have hit low-income households the hardest.

"The worst thing that could happen to people who are at risk of being left behind in this country is if we let inflation get out of control," Dr Chalmers said.

"Inflation inflicts a hammer blow on Australians, but particularly vulnerable Australians."

One of the factors fueling inflation is the price of gas, which has soared since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would give "strong consideration" to measures to bring down prices, including strengthening the role of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

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Dr Chalmers was careful not to rule in or rule out certain measures, including the prospect of a cap on energy prices, when pressed by reporters following his speech.

"I don't want to ... nominate a preferred path. It would require a lot of consultation with colleagues and other levels of government," he said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt urged the government to consider capping electricity prices.

"People are hurting, the electricity market has failed and it's coal and gas driving the crisis," he said.

The opposition was quick to seize on the energy price forecasts, holding it up as proof that Labor wouldn't be able to deliver on its promise to reduce the average annual household electricity bill by $275 by 2025.

The promise was based on the independent modelling which informed the climate and energy targets which Labor took to the election.

The RepuTex modelling was conducted in late 2021, months before the Ukraine conflict triggered the ongoing international energy crisis.

"I think there are a lot of families who really feel deceived," Opposition leader Peter Dutton said on Wednesday morning.

"They heard the Prime Minister on 97 occasions promise that their power prices would come down by $275.

"We now find that five months later the government is predicting that their power prices will go up by 56 per cent over the next two years, gas prices up by 40 per cent, every other cost of living pressure still will continue to mount, and this government last night threw their hands up and said that they didn't have a plan."

Grattan Institute energy program director Tony Wood said Labor's $275 promise was always a "strange" one given it was at the mercy of factors outside the government's control.

Mr Wood said the Albanese government had put itself in a tricky position to negotiate the energy crisis after ruling out various options.

For example, it has resisted calls for a windfall profits tax on gas companies and is avoiding cash handouts due to the inflation risk.

"The choices they are left with have got significant adverse consequences that they need to think about, which is presumably what they're doing right now," he said.

Arguing a price cap would be "messy", Mr Wood suggested the ACCC set an "appropriate, fair and competitive" price would gas producers could sell at in the domestic market.

"Producers wouldn't like it, but it seems to me that that would have the least negative (impact)," he said.

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