Please find my submission attached.
Download (262.98 KB)Review of the Australian Public
Service
Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
July 2018
Author:
Dr Lynette Molyneaux
Phone: (07) 3346 1003
This submission represents the opinions of the contributing authors listed in this document. It does not
necessarily represent an official position of The University of Queensland.
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Summary
Collection, dissemination and storage of data by the Australian Public Service
I am an AdvanceQueensland fellow. The first deliverable for my fellowship is a database of production,
consumption and value of all sources of energy in Queensland from 1970 to current. Analysing historic trends
on energy is currently particularly pertinent because prices for consumers of gas and electricity have risen
sharply in recent years. As a researcher focussed on energy, the availability of historic data on which to test
the efficacy of policies that have influenced energy prices, is of primary importance. The
AdvanceQueensland project to create a database available to the public for research purposes, has
highlighted the inconsistent and unreliable nature of collection, dissemination and storage of data by the
Australian Public Service.
I illustrate this with a few examples:
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: energy products as confidential commodities
Important energy products are included as confidential commodities and then data is restricted. Currently, no
state details are available for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), despite LNG being a very large export commodity for
Queensland. Indeed, the price of natural gas in Eastern Australia has been significantly affected by the LNG
exports from Gladstone, and yet data on LNG exports is classified as confidential.
Equally, semi-soft coking metallurgical coal and PCI metallurgical coal are also classified as confidential with
no state data available. Removing data on one type of coal, as is the case with PCI coal, effectively removes
the value associated with reporting the entire dataset on coking coal.
With deregulated gas and electricity industries, until recent attempts at analysing pricing of data, tariffs have
been discoverable only through painstaking investigation by consumers when and if they are aware that their
supply contracts have concluded.
Energy is an important contributor to Queensland’s economy and restricting the data associated with these
commodities compromises the ability to analyse and research policies that impact on consumers and the
economy.
- Clean Energy Regulator: ongoing secrecy provisions
Data on renewable energy generation from 2001 to 2012, is not available. According to communications with
CER representatives, secrecy provisions preclude the publication of energy produced annually by renewable
energy generators.
CER representatives advise that solar panel installation data from 2001 to 2011 is not available but will be
published at some time in the future.
Access to National Greenhouse Energy Reporting (NGER) from 2008-09 onwards is restricted and not
accessible to researchers outside of state governments.
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The Australian Greenhouse Emissions Information System (AEGIS) has reduced its reporting on state
greenhouse emissions for public electricity to exclude emission by fuel source in 2018. It has also withdrawn
this data for all years going back to 1990.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: energy reporting for states
ABS reporting for states has been ad hoc. For instance:
• Cat No, 1301.3 Queensland Year Book was published from 1937, but discontinued in 2001;
• Cat No. 8226.0 Electricity Supply Industry: Summary of Operations and Industry Value Added;
Australia, States and Territories; published for 2001-02 to 2003-06
• Cat No. 8206 Electricity and Gas Operations Australia; published for 1992-93 to 1999-00
• Cat No. 8226 Electricity, Gas, Water and Sewerage Operations Australia; published for 1996-97
• Cat No 6427 Producer Price Indexes, Australia. Table 36. Output of the Mining industries, Gas
extraction index numbers; starts Sep 2015
• Cat No. 8213 National Energy Survey; published for 1982-83 and 1985-86.
There is no evidence of a strategy by the ABS to ensure adequate and ongoing reporting on energy matters
despite significant energy sector change since the mid-1990s.
- Australian Energy Statistics (AES)
AES is the primary publication on energy in Australia. It comprises 18 tables on production and consumption
of energy in Australia, but nothing on prices. Production of primary energy by state is detailed from 1960-61
to current and consumption of energy by fuel and by state is detailed from 1973-74 to current. There are
anomalies between the reporting of Queensland energy data by the AES compared to what is reported by the
Queensland Government. Representatives from the Department of Environment and Energy are unable to
help analyse variations:
• before 2002, due to a lack of systems which detail how the data was collected and adjusted for
reporting;
• from 2002-2014, due to a lack of resource to fully investigate anomalies and inconsistencies.
Whilst data is of primary importance for researchers, it is equally important for the Australian Public Service.
Without consistent historic data it is not possible to analyse the effectiveness of historic policies and advise
adequately on future policy measures. As a researcher in energy, it appears that energy data is not of primary
importance for the APS.
The public is only well served when there is adequate data to allow scrutiny and analysis. Reforms like those
pursued in the electricity sector after the mid 1990s were not accompanied by adequate data collection and
dissemination. Whilst institutions like the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) have reported wholesale
price, no other public institutions have reported comprehensively and succinctly on retail tariffs until public
outcry at tariff increases resulted in scrutiny in recent years. Escalated electricity prices are a consequence of
many issues but the problem has been exacerbated by 20 years of a paucity of data provision in the sector.
It should therefore be incumbent on the Australian Public Service to guarantee to the public that transparency
on matters like utility gas and electricity market arrangements is facilitated through quality data collection and
dissemination. In particular, data collection needs to be protected through periods of change like sector
reform or government reorganisation. Too often commercial sensitivity is given as the reason for a lack or
withdrawal of data. In reality, a lack of data results in poor outcomes for the public because of the resultant
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lack of transparency. It is to be remembered that competition can only deliver benefits when buyers have
access to quality information to inform their decisions.
In conclusion, I add selected comments from an electricity consumer who contacted me a few years back
about the frustrations associated with negotiating tariffs with electricity retailers.
I don't know how someone who only has an average grasp of finance would work out the best offer for
them as there are a lot of rates and calculations to perform with them. The sales people have in some
cases a poor grasp of what they are doing or make statements that aren't correct.
I had received about 6 different offers from XXXX over the negotiation. I don’t see how this improves
economic efficiency. Are we all meant to spend time negotiating in this way to buy energy so that we
drive the per unit price down so that the utility has a motivation to improve their internal efficiency.
XXXX have shown quite clearly that if you don’t push them they will seek to charge you the highest
price that they can get away with, and then get you to sign a contract that you can’t leave without
some penalty but they can put up the price anyway. This is really an inefficient use of resources and in
addition they have no morals.
More important than the frustrations experienced by consumers in negotiating contracts with a multitude of
retailers, is the consequence of an information vacuum on aggregate or benchmark tariffs that could inform
and simplify the decision process.
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