Highlights
- Australia’s energy system is meeting the economic and social needs of Australians, and is expected to do so into the future. However, this will require a focus on challenges such as:
- ensuring a smooth transition to a clean energy economy
- securing imely investment in all aspects of our energy system
- adjusting to the changing dynamics in key international and domestic energy markets.
- Energy security is best delivered through well-functioning markets supported by established and diversified supply chains.
- Australia’s energy resource base underpins our energy security, but access to global energy markets, such as open and well-functioning global oil markets, is also critical.
- Self-sufficiency as an energy policy goal is costly and likely to be misplaced, given the proven ability of international markets to respond to changing circumstances.
- Australia’s emergency response arrangements also play an important role in ensuring effective and timely responses to unforeseen events.
- The Australian Government’s energy policy framework is designed to improve Australia’s energy security through:
- continuing supply- and demand-side market reforms to maximise investment and improve the flexibility and resilience of energy markets
- encouraging diversity of supply and infrastructure reliability for supply chain resilience
- attracting the necessary capital investment and skilled labour to meet future energy demand
- promoting long-term investment certainty through carbon pricing.
- Ensuring that we have a resilient policy framework is critical in managing challenges, particularly in a rapidly changing world. This requires regular monitoring and assessment.
Energy security underpins our economy by allowing markets and consumers to function and plan in the knowledge that they have access to adequate, reliable and competitively priced energy.
It requires careful balancing of many policy objectives, including maintaining well-functioning energy markets and an attractive economic and investment environment, implementing integrated and efficient policies to move to a clean energy economy, and providing frameworks to support workforce needs, innovation and technological development. It also requires emergency response and system security frameworks that are able to anticipate as well as respond to critical events.
Energy security is a responsibility shared by all Australian governments—a fact recognised through the Standing Council on Energy and Resources and other energy—related arrangements under the Council of Australian Governments framework.
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