Jim Chalmers won't rule out taxes and household relief as cost-of-living crisis worsens

Jim Chalmers said the budget needed a fresh look in its entirety as he stared down tough questions about rising energy prices and inflation.

The federal budget, handed down last Tuesday, revealed energy prices are expected to rise more than 50 per cent as the rate of inflation hit 7.3 per cent - the highest since 1990.

Speaking on ABC's Insiders on Sunday morning, the Treasurer said his priority was empowering the consumer watchdog to crack down on energy companies taking customers for a ride.

"You can go down the path of tax, you can go down the path of direct support to households - we don't want to rule out those kinds of options, but our focus, our immediate focus is on the regulatory side," Dr Chalmers said.

The Albanese government's first budget did not offer any one-off cost-of-living relief measures, such as energy rebates, saying it would further fuel inflation.

Instead, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was given additional resourcing and staff allocations in the October budget as it's tasked with keeping a watchful eye on false and misleading conduct among the gas companies.

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When pressed on when he expected electricity prices to stabilise, Dr Chalmers declined to give a date but said the federal government's policies would cushion steep cost rises until that point.

"Because of the war in Ukraine, electricity prices and gas prices will become a bigger portion, a bigger component of this inflation challenge that we have more broadly, along with natural disasters pushing up the cost of living as well," he said on Sunday.

"We do expect prices to rise this year and next year, part of that is already flowing and all of the work that we're doing now is to try and take some of the sting out of those price rises.

"We know that they will moderate in time and we know that we give ourselves the best chance to do that by investing in new sources of cleaner and cheaper energy."

Dr Chalmers said the government's focus remains on pulling back spending in non-priority areas rather than providing stimulus or slapping on fresh taxes, though the latter options won't be ruled out.

"We need a conversation about how we make the budget more sustainable," he said.

"We've shown that you can move sensibly on all fronts - restraint, trimming spending, sensible tax reform - you can make the budget more sustainable, and that will be the task of the two or three budgets remaining in this parliamentary term as well."