COAG Decision Regulation Impact Statement – COAG Energy Council
On 20 March 2020, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council endorsed a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) containing measures to improve gas market transparency, which are expected to generate benefits in terms of:
- reduced search and transaction costs for market participants;
- facilitating more efficient investment across the market;
- reducing the deadweight loss associated with an inefficient allocation of resources;
- enabling more informed and efficient decisions to be made by market participants across the supply chain;
- facilitating improved decision making by policymakers and regulators; and
- facilitating more effective competition in the wholesale, gas transmission, gas storage and retail segments of the gas supply chain.
Further consultation on amendments to the National Gas Law (NGL) and Regulations as well as the National Gas Rules will inform a final package of amendments expected to be considered by the Energy Council later in 2020. If approved, legislative changes will be progressed through the South Australian Parliament. As an applied law regime, the amendments made to the NGL in South Australia will flow through to all jurisdictions which have applied the NGL. Commencement of these changes will be phased, and specific dates will be canvassed through the legislative consultation process.
The then Department of the Environment and Energy prepared a decision-making RIS that was provided to the COAG Energy Council to inform their decision. The RIS was assessed by the Office of Best Practice Regulation as compliant with the COAG Best Practice Regulation requirements.