Energy cartel laws waived by ACCC for food processors desperate to reduce costs

In the face of skyrocketing energy prices, Australia's competition regulator the ACCC is allowing a group of agribusinesses to jointly buy electricity and gas across an 11-year period.

ACCC allows energy-intensive food processors to
jointly tender to bring down electricity and gas prices.

Laws prohibit this type of cartel behaviour, but an exemption is granted if the benefit outweighs the detriment to the public.

Eight businesses have so far joined the Eastern Energy Buyers Group, including the large Rivalea pig farm, Australian Lamb Company, CSF Proteins, Diamond Valley Pork, Gathercole Group, Greenham and Sons, MC Herd Pty Ltd, Ridley Agripoducts, and Turi Foods and Farming.

One lamb processor told the ABC the plant's energy costs have skyrocketed this year alone, despite investments in solar power.

Read the ABC News story - “Energy cartel laws waived by ACCC for food processors desperate to reduce costs.”

Malcolm Turnbull wants us to bet on the National Energy Guarantee trifecta without seeing the detail

Forget chief scientist Alan Finkel's exhaustive inquiry. Forget the months of evidence and sophisticated modelling. Forget the detailed report on electricity prices by the ACCC. Forget the RET and the CET. Now we've got the NEG.

Malcolm Turnbull has asked the public to "trust the experts".

If you believe the Government, the NEG — or National Energy Guarantee — will deliver the trifecta: no blackouts, less carbon dioxide emissions and lower prices.

Energy policy nirvana without a "re-neg" on Australia's climate change commitments.

There is serious room for doubt, but who really knows? It's impossible to make a definitive judgement because the policy, made on the run with obvious haste, is so sketchy.

This is a scheme based on an eight-page letter, outlining the germ of an idea, from a little-known body established just two months ago — the Energy Security Board — which is largely comprised of representatives from energy regulators who are partly responsible for the mess we're in.

The devil, always in the detail, is yet to come.

Read Stephen Long’s analysis on the ABC News - “Malcolm Turnbull wants us to bet on the National Energy Guarantee trifecta without seeing the detail.”