Face of Nation : The Morrison Government is proposing unprecedented peacetime laws to boss around the heads of big business. At the same time, it is sticking to a boast it’s the champion of getting big government out of the way of business through its plans to cut regulations and “red tape”.
This is the unusual political context and the tricky juggling act for the Government when it produces the “Big Stick” legislation it insists is necessary to force power companies to do the right thing by electricity consumers. It would not just be a matter of directing CEOs how to run their businesses — it could also force them to sell off assets.
The broad objective would be to prevent power companies from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour that would deny consumers cheaper rates. There are precedents in the US, the Government says, but not here.
And it should be noted there are no suggestions the affected companies have broken any laws. But the very forces that once demanded privatisation of the electricity industry are now associated with the politics of insisting government again has a say in running it. But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg today said: “The Government has long warned that energy companies must put their customers first, and the market practices the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has described as ‘unacceptable and unsustainable’ must stop.
“That is why the Government is committed to passing our ‘Big Stick’ legislation, which complements the Default Market Offer (for lower power prices) and provides the ACCC with real teeth to hold power companies to account for their actions in the market.”
To be introduced to Parliament “at the earliest opportunity,” the Big Stick legislation might be another of those “tests” Prime Minister Scott Morrison has recently said he wants to set the Labor Opposition: Will Labor cave in or be depicted as opposing lower electricity prices?
“When these important reforms were introduced to the 45th Parliament earlier this year, Labor opposed the legislation 13 times,” Mr Frydenberg said. “Labor has a choice: side with Australian households and small businesses, or side with the big energy companies and their massive profits.” Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wants to see the detail first but has some view on the Government’s naming skills.
“This is a Government that doesn’t have a policy on climate change or energy, and has come up with a rather juvenile term, to be frank, of calling legislation Big Stick legislation,” he told reporters today. “I mean we’re meant to be adults. And the problem for this Government is that it doesn’t have the maturity as a political organisation to actually come together with a coherent policy.” What would be bugging Labor, also, is the notion that if it tried to push CEOs around in the manner of this Coalition Government, it would face brutal reprisals.
Resources Minister Matt Canavan berated banks for not funding the proposed Adani coal mine; Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told a senior executive who backed SSM to “stick to your knitting”; a range of free enterprise players have been scolded for their climate change preparations.
Recently Treasurer Frydenberg told businesses to boost productivity and invest profits rather than use them for bigger dividends and share buybacks; and last week Prime Minister Morrison’s right-hand muse, MP Ben Morton, told business it had been “missing in action” on tax cuts. Maybe a Government appointee on all big business boards might be the answer?
But don’t forget, the other arm of the Government’s policy priorities is to remove impediments to company growth and get government out of board decisions.
“Removing what governments identify as excessive or outdated regulation is one thing. Whether we are really focusing on the barriers that matter to business in getting investments and projects off the ground is another,” Mr Morrison said in June.
“By focusing on regulation from the viewpoint of business, we will identify the regulations and bureaucratic processes that impose the largest costs on key sectors of the economy and the biggest hurdles to letting those investments flow.
