Sustainability: Obstacle Or Opportunity?

Default offers in Australia's retail electricity market were designed to eliminate loyalty penalties and simplify plan comparisons, but how exactly do regulators calculate these price caps? The Australian Energy Regulator and Essential Services Commission now employ similar bottom-up methodologies that stack various cost components to determine what a prudent retailer would need to charge a representative customer.

The Queensland Government has launched a comprehensive review of its Financial Provisioning Scheme for the resources industry, examining whether the current framework adequately balances environmental rehabilitation risks with industry growth and investment opportunities. Stakeholders from across the mining sector, investment community, and landholders are invited to provide feedback on the scheme's effectiveness and potential improvements.

The recent decision of the High Court in Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Corporation v Orica Australia Pty Ltd [2026] HCA 30 has confirmed by majority that employees...

The NSW Government has doubled the objection threshold for electricity generating works to be referred to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) and removed objection-based IPC referral for battery energy storage systems altogether. These changes seek to materially reduce approval risk for proponents across the energy sector.

A key constraining factor for Australia’s energy transition is the need to convert increasingly complex and interdependent market, regulatory and infrastructure signals into bankable project structures which deliver internationally competitive returns – and to do so at scale and speed.

Critical minerals policy is shifting from a focus on export opportunity to a question of national security, energy resilience and regulatory control. As global demand accelerates and nuclear power is repositioned as a strategic energy source, Australia’s export‑focused and restrictive uranium framework is under increasing pressure.

The Queensland Court of Appeal has delivered a landmark decision on land valuation methodology for renewable energy projects, examining whether a 500MW solar farm and battery storage facility should be valued as rural or non-rural land. The case centered on a dispute involving nearly six million dollars in valuation differences and raises critical questions about how development approvals for renewable energy infrastructure impact statutory land valuations under Queensland's Land Valuation Act 2010.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) stage of Australia’s first offshore wind auction opened in Victoria on 26 August 2026.

The Australian Energy Regulator has issued new guidance clarifying compliance expectations for automated bidding systems and third-party service providers in the National Electricity Market. Market participants using automation face heightened scrutiny over bid oversight, record-keeping practices, and competition law risks, with responsibility for compliance remaining squarely with generators regardless of technological intermediaries.

Queensland's new critical minerals plan, Delivering Queensland's Critical Minerals Future 2026-30 (the 2026-30 Plan), arrives at a time when governments around the world are competing not only to develop critical minerals projects, but also to secure processing and refining capability.