The Australian Energy Regulator is one of four bodies that decide your power bill, and it already monitors energy markets and enforces their rules. What it lacks, according to the government, is a way to be pointed at a problem: the explanatory memorandum says the current legislative framework does not provide a dedicated mechanism for the Energy Minister to require the AER to undertake targeted inquiries into emerging energy market issues.

What the bill does

  • The minister can order an inquiry, or approve one. By written notice to the AER Chair, the energy minister can require an inquiry into specified matters, or approve one the AER wants to run. The bill’s own examples of matters include pricing, market conduct and competition, the reliability or security of supply, and the efficiency of the market overall.
  • It can target named businesses. An inquiry can be about supply by a particular person or persons. Each one gets written notice and a copy of the final report on the day the minister receives it.
  • Compulsory information. The AER can use its existing powers to obtain information, which stays protected under the confidentiality rules that already apply to it.
  • A deadline the minister sets. The notice fixes the period for finishing the inquiry and reporting. The minister can extend it, more than once.
  • Directions. The minister can direct how the inquiry is run and what the AER takes into account, and the AER must comply.
  • Publication, with an exception. The AER must make the report available for public inspection, at the time the minister directs, or otherwise as soon as practicable 28 days after the minister receives it. The minister can direct that this requirement does not apply.

Which markets it could reach

The bill covers the supply of energy-related goods (gas, electricity, and the fuels and other goods needed to supply them) and energy-related services. The memorandum says the matters an inquiry looks at could extend to services including but not limited to wholesale contracts, data centres, embedded networks, flexibility services (such as demand response), services related to consumer energy resources (such as virtual power plants and electric vehicle charging).

Three of those are household markets this site has written about. If you live in an apartment block, retirement village or caravan park that buys power in bulk and sells it on, you are in an embedded network, where the default price cap does not apply. If you have a home battery, you may be offered a place in a virtual power plant, which runs it for the grid in return for payment. And kerbside and home EV charging are new markets with open questions about who pays. Naming them in the memorandum does not mean any inquiry will happen; it means one could.

Why now, according to the government

The memorandum points to uncertainty about energy security after recent international developments, including the adequacy of fuel supply for generation, which it says translated into increased prices for electricity futures contracts across the National Electricity Market. It says the powers are intended to mirror the substance of the competition regulator’s existing inquiry function, and that they do not limit the ACCC’s own inquiry powers. It records no financial impact.

Where it stands

  1. 28 October 2026Introduced in the House of Representatives and read a first time; second reading moved the same day.
  2. NextDebate in both houses. The inquiry provisions would start the day after Royal Assent.

Our view

This is opinion, built on the bill and its memorandum. A regulator that can be sent to look hard at a specific market, with compulsory powers and a deadline, is useful to households, and the markets the memorandum names are the right ones: each is a place where a household has little bargaining power and little public data. An embedded network resident is outside the default price cap, and a battery owner signing up to a virtual power plant is handing over control of an expensive asset on terms that are hard to compare.

The weak spot is publication. The memorandum’s reasons for keeping a report back are real: confidential commercial information, market-sensitive information, security of supply and enforcement action. But the bill lets the minister switch off publication of the whole report, not withhold the sensitive parts, and the minister both orders the inquiry and decides whether anyone sees the result. An inquiry into a household market that ends in an unpublished report tells the households in it nothing. We would rather see publication with redactions as the only exception, and any non-publication direction itself made public.

We will report when the bill passes, and the first inquiry the minister orders under it.

Sources

Where this came from. Researched, written and kept up to date by AI systems run by a small Australian team, and built from the primary sources below. How The Electric Household works.

  1. Parliament of Australia, Competition and Consumer Amendment (AER Inquiry Powers) Bill 2026 (bill page, read 28 October 2026): introduced and read a first time 28 October 2026, second reading moved the same day.
  2. The bill, first reading text (PDF, read 28 October 2026): the commencement table and new Part XICAA, sections 153ZDG to 153ZDO, including the definitions of energy-related goods.
  3. The bill’s explanatory memorandum (PDF, 22 pages, read 28 October 2026): the general outline and background, the markets an inquiry could cover, the financial impact statement, and paragraphs 34 and 58 to 59 on directions and publication.

Methodology. We read the bill as introduced and its explanatory memorandum in full on 28 October 2026, the day it was introduced. The list of what the bill does summarises sections 153ZDG to 153ZDN in our words; the markets an inquiry could reach are quoted from the memorandum, which is the government’s explanation and not part of the law. We have not read the second reading speech, and we did not ask the minister’s office or the AER for comment. A bill can change before it passes. The paragraphs under “Our view” are our analysis, honestly held, built on the sourced facts above and labelled as opinion.

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