Reared with a
sense of righteous self-importance, fed on a diet of IPA ideology with a side
dish of entitlement, brought to Canberra by the Old Boy’s Network, then
fattened into self-complacency by the political perks of office, this
particular Coalition Government (which took the reins of government in 2013 and
kept them in 2016) was always a puny failure.
Faced on a
daily basis with its own failings this clueless federal government scrabbled
about for years before turning bitter, vindictive and intent on destruction.
Here is yet
another example of the Morrison Government’s inability to do more than spin
its wheels…..
Financial
Review, 26
October 2018:
Federal energy minister
Angus Taylor's roundtable aimed at forcing big
energy companies to lower their standing offers for retail power by
January 1 is under a cloud because of real fears this could amount to
an illegal cartel.
Energy industry sources
say the legal
risks of breaching cartel laws - jail terms and massive fines for
individual executives - are too great for them to risk at a roundtable at which
issues of pricing will be hanging in the air even if not explicitly
discussed.
Mr Taylor dismissed
suggestions that the round table could breach competition laws.
"Of course we're
not going to breach the Australian laws; we don't do that," he told
reporters after the COAG Energy Council meeting in Sydney.
But
he signalled that all the invited retailers may not attend the round
table, at which the government would outline its policies and expectations that
the sector will deliver price cuts for consumers.
"We're looking
forward to as many electricity providers coming to the round table as want to
come along," Mr Taylor said.
The energy companies'
fears of breaching the cartel laws are heightened because they have been
under permanent
surveillance on pricing by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
for the last 18 months and the government recently extended
that monitoring until 2025.
As well, cartel laws
have been widened to include so called "signalling" and other forms
of tacit agreement falling short of explicit price fixing agreements during the
last decade because offences were too difficult to prove in court under the
previous, much stricter definition.
Mr
Taylor wrote to energy companies on Tuesday inviting them to a
"roundtable" to discuss the reductions in their standing offers they
will be required to make for January 1, 2019 - before the July 1 scrapping of
standing offers which are to be replaced by the "default" tariff to
be set by the Australian Energy Regulator by April 30.
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