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Competition and certainty key to solving energy crisis
23 Oct 2018 | Archive
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s CEO, James Pearson, says today’s announcement by the Federal Government on energy clearly attempts to address some of the failures in the energy market, failures that result from years of inconsistent policies – by Federal, State and Territory Governments from both major political parties.
“We acknowledge that the Government has recognised our calls to focus on measures with short term impact that encourage more competition,” Mr Pearson said.
“The Australian Chamber supports the default offer and reference rates as proposed by the ACCC. It’s important, though, that the approach proposed by the government does not result in a return to regulated pricing.
“We are concerned at measures such as forced divestment, which was not recommended by the ACCC, as it creates additional risk and may have the unintended consequence of actually stifling competition by discouraging investment.”
Mr Pearson said keeping costs down in the longer term required three key elements to be addressed – cost, reliability and emissions.
“In order to improve reliability and meet our emissions reduction target, we need to provide the policy certainty required to encourage long-term investment in the energy sector,” Mr Pearson said.
“That’s why the Australian Chamber believes that the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) – which addresses reliability and emissions reduction; in conjunction with many of the ACCC’s proposals – which address competition – offers a solution.
“We look forward to government consultations with business – particularly Small and Medium enterprises – in order to put in place policy settings that help to deliver sustained lower pricing from a more reliable energy network with reduced emissions.”
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