What you describe here is IMO the outcome of unfettered free market in Australia, no different what LNP would do relative to the present Govt. Unfettered free market has seen Australian consumers being ripped off as we pay more for our food and energy compared to what these businesses sell overseas.
Companies/businesses make commercial decisions to cater solely to their own interests to secure revenues and maximise profits. Overseas markets provide scale and long term contracts while our domestic market with a relatively small population does not. As shareholders of these companies, you would want unfettered free market so they can pursue what is best for the companies, which are not for consumers. But as shareholders, you have stakes in both, as a stakeholder in the company as well as consumers, but you can't have it both ways.
Now if the Govt intervenes to halt or move the goal post of unfettered free market, they would be criticised for doing so and breaking the trust of the private sector. And everything here is expensive - we even need $20mil to provide governance of supermarket behaviour! And some matters are state decisions outside of the Federal Govt's jurisdiction.
Therefore it is never going to be easy, only the Greens would be prepared to tinker with free market but they would go to the other extreme.
Our country has enormous potential to reap the energy from the sun, sea and wind - natural renewable resources but like EVs, we do not have the big ambition for transformation and perhaps need to study the way China did. We won't succeed leaving things to the private sector, we have to set clear energy policy (which has been clearly absent for a long time now) and work collaboratively in Govt-private partnerships to implement to set ambitions. Until we remove policy gridlock, all consumers can do is to figure out how they can use less energy - perhaps back to basics - during winter, I wear my English coat, during summer, we take our clothes off (lol).
Expand
