The JEC made a submission to the Productivity Commission’s interim report on its fifth pillar of inquiry – Investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.
We agreed with the Productivity Commission’s ambition to reduce the cost of meeting Australia’s carbon emission reduction commitments, and argued the most efficient way to do this would be to introduce an economy-wide carbon price. This would have the added benefit of raising a fund of monies that could be used (among other things) to subsidise energy costs for consumers and so raise the social licence for the energy transition as a whole.
We commended the Productivity Commission of its recognition of housing efficiency as a matter of productivity, but noted that their recommendations could include an interest in equity and inclusivity in the task of upgrading the stock of housing. To this end we tabled our Roadmap for efficient and electrical homes.
Finally, we highlighted our concerns regarding the capacity of the National Energy Market to produce efficient price discovery in the five minute dispatch and proposed that the Productivity Commission examine the issue of market concentration in today’s market and the market of the mid-2030s forward. Managing the development of and expression of market concentration will be vital in protecting the interests of consumers in coming years as well as avoiding the anchor on economy-wide productivity that unnecessarily high energy prices constitutes.
JEC wins award for housing and mental ill-health lived experience committee