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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 3 Hansard (28 May) . . Page.. 701 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Speaker, as the code applies nationally through template legislation arrangements, the Legislative Assembly would not be able to make the code a disallowable instrument. This provides a sensible safeguard for a national gas market framework, where pipelines cross State and Territory borders, by ensuring that no jurisdiction will unilaterally amend the code. The intergovernmental agreement set the date for enactment of access legislation by 30 June 1998. The agreement also required participants to amend existing legislation which was no longer consistent with the national gas access framework. The agreement also sets out the bodies which administer the code in the principal market sectors of gas transmission and gas distribution pipelines. The agreement also commits participants to the timetable for implementing reforms and to agreeing the access Bills and derogations, or departures from the code, of other participants. The natural gas pipelines access agreement was endorsed by heads of government at the COAG meeting on 7 November 1997. South Australia, as lead legislature, passed the national gas pipelines access law on 10 December 1997.

Mr Speaker, this package of reforms provides a tangible example of how the ACT community benefits from competition policy reforms. These benefits are: In the ACT, we do not produce any gas of our own and, where there is only one supplier, Canberrans have no choice but to acquire gas from a sole supplier; there is the opportunity to purchase gas at competitive prices; and that will happen because gas suppliers will need to compete for the business. Mr Speaker, this is not just about prices; it is also about services and the context in which ACT consumers make decisions on their source of energy, and gas is one product in the energy market. Greater choice will lead to a number of benefits, and these benefits are just part of our higher level objective of continually improving the provision of all goods and services to Canberrans.

Mr Speaker, the pace of reform has some intensity, with the agreement committing participants to enact access law by 30 June 1998, as this is the date on which the National Competition Council, or NCC, will make its next assessment of States' progress against COAG agreed reforms. The pace of reform is also being driven by gas users wanting lower gas prices, the gas industry wanting certainty for investment purposes, and the need to gain NCC certification of the gas access regime in order to qualify each State and Territory for competition dividend payments from the Commonwealth.

To give effect to the access agreement, the Gas Pipelines Access Bill 1998 has been drafted. This Bill applies the national gas pipelines access law, which in turn adopts the national third party access code for natural gas pipeline systems. The Gas Pipelines Access Bill 1998 also provides the arrangements for conferring powers on code bodies who regulate sectors of the market, such as the transmission pipelines and the distribution pipelines. For transmission pipelines, such as the Moomba to Sydney pipeline system, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or ACCC, is the independent regulator by virtue of the sale of the Moomba to Sydney pipeline system in 1994. For distribution pipelines, such as those owned and operated by AGL Gas Networks across Canberra and Queanbeyan, the independent regulator is the ACT Independent Pricing and Regulatory Commission, with the ACT Minister for Urban Services as the local Minister for this market sector.

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