The passing of the Government’s energy legislation this week is bad policy. Even the Greens admitted it wont decrease your energy bills. The Coalition supports the parts of the package that provide direct relief to those Australians doing it tough – they need support and I back that decision. But having a Federal Government meddle in the energy market in this way is not only unprecedented, but ignores Economics 101. It delegates power to the Treasurer to make broad ranging regulations that control pricing, contracting and purchasing in the gas market; this creates a permanent cap on rates of return and will destroy future gas supply, deter investment, drown businesses in red tape and jeopardise the thousands of jobs and businesses supported by our resources sector. The real solution is to boost local supply, working within the laws of economics not against them, and incentivising the gas companies to divert more gas into the domestic network right now. It means getting more gas out of the ground through projects like Narrabri and the Beetaloo Basin while supporting the industry’s decarbonisation initiatives. This worked for the Coalition and it can work again.
