Economic Survey of Australia 2006: The need for further reforms to infrastructure services
Australia’s National Competition Policy (NCP) has set out competition principles which extended the reach of competition law to previously exempt activities and provided a coherent framework for reforms in essential infrastructure industries. Among the major achievements are the establishment of an overarching national access regime — together with sector specific regimes — which introduced third party access arrangements for infrastructure services such as gas pipelines and rail track networks. Independent authorities were established in all jurisdictions to monitor and set prices for monopoly services. However, there remains unfinished business and the NCP infrastructure reform agenda was not exhaustive, leaving room for additional measures to improve the efficiency in essential areas such as electricity, water, road and rail transport. Implementing them, including through the new National Reform Agenda, should raise multifactor productivity further and should help to narrow the gap between Australia’s per capita income and that of the OECD’s best performers.
Long abstract