Queensland Competition Authority, Brisbane, QLD

It is not always possible or sensible to have market competition in the provision of essential services where large scale infrastructure, and therefore significant capital investment, is required.

This is because there may be only one possible supplier (for example there may be only one possible site for a dam) or it may not be economic to have more than one supplier (for example the costs of constructing a new electricity distribution system would simply outweigh the benefits).

In these circumstances, there may be limited, if any, competitive forces available to constrain the behaviour of businesses, especially in the provision of essential services such as water, energy and transport.

Our role is to put in place arrangements to prevent the abuse of market power which may arise from the lack of competition.