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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3449 ..

2.

Mr Speaker, when I introduced the Electricity (National Scheme) Bill into the Assembly I foreshadowed that I would be bringing forward further legislation providing for a second major reform of electricity supply in the ACT.

As Members will recall, the Electricity (National Scheme) Bill provided for a National Electricity Market - consistent national wholesale arrangements for supply of electricity from generators down to retailers.

The Electricity Supply Bill 1997, and the Electricity Supply (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 1997 which I shall shortly introduce, complete the process of reform.

The Electricity Supply Bill brings the benefits of competition down to the level of consumers. Its focus is to facilitate the introduction of competition in electricity retailing in the ACT - in other words, moving towards a situation in which customers will be able to choose their electricity retailer in much the same way as they now can choose their phone company.

The Bill provides for the entry of new retailers into the ACT and the gradual declaration of groups of customers as "non-franchise".

This term, I am told, is now one with which we will become increasingly familiar. "Franchised" customers are those who are still "tied" to one retailer. "Non-franchise" customers are those who are not included in this retailer's "franchise" area.

The national electricity reform agreements require that customers have the right to choose their own retailers. The Council of Australian Governments also agreed that there should be no discriminatory barriers set up by States and Territories to entry of new retailers. The Council, however, agreed that this competition reform should be handled at the state and Territory level rather than through national legislation.

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