Like Sands Through The Hourglass, So Are The NEM Reviews Of Our Lives
A gaggle of green-haired treasury officials, the Productivity Commission, and the ghost of NEM reviews past walk into a bar.
‘Abundance v Sufficiency: Dawn of Justice’ T-Shirt Edition
With a sufficiency of sufficiency-themed t-shirts now on the streets, the universe is out of balance and your intrepid hosts need to balance the sufficiency yin with an abundance yang! And OH BOY did we have an abundance of abundance-themed t-shirt ideas for you. YOU need not have Abundance FOMO any longer. Run, don’t walk to our merch page and grab the limited edition Abundance tee: www.letmesumup.net/p/merch/.
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It’s Productivity Palooza 2025 and invited to the hottest party in town (this here podcast of course) is the one and only Alison Reeve who joins your intrepid hosts in a Productivity Commission report launch party! Landing in Jim Chalmers’ hot little hands before the big Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra (the other hottest party in town), the PC’s interim report, “Investing in Cheaper, Cleaner Energy and the Net Zero Transformation” has a grab bag of ideas: Adaptation - getting its moment, finally! Approvals - strike teams and make em’ fast! Carbon pricing - safeguard harder! Also check out this excellent OpEd from Alison in the AFR.
Our main course
I’m Wonky But I’m Worth It might have been the unofficial subtitle of the latest contribution to reform of the National Electricity Market by expert panel Tim Nelson, Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Phil Hirschhorn. That’s right, your intrepid hosts evidently didn’t have anything else to do last weekend than consume the 220-page elephant of the “National Electricity Market wholesale market settings review” draft report (we did, but we read it anyway – you're welcome). While heavy on financial jargon, we wonder whether this might be the political bullet proof vest this policy needs, lest the ESEM join the acronym soup grave of NEM review solutions past! Targeted upgrades to existing architecture across the spot market (visibility of DER!), medium-term derivatives (more liquidity via market-making obligations!) and long-term investment signals (enter, Electricity Services Entry Mechanism!) with a partridge in a pear tree and consumer reforms (the epilogue that Frankie thinks deserves a prologue).
One more things
Tennant’s One More Thing is: the greatest movie ever made!? WARNING: 3.5 hours and carbon monoxide poisoning awaits.
Frankie’s One More Thing is: a watching brief on the expert panel on atmospheric measurement of fugitive methane emissions in Australia, chaired by former chief scientist Dr Cathy Foley, and just how this might contribute to policy - Global Methane Pledge, ahem!
Alison’s One More Thing is: is the gas network problem solving itself? A Victorian gas utility helping customers go all-electric feels like cause for celebration in putting consumers first!
Luke’s One More Thing is: a shout out and salute to outgoing Clean Energy Council CEO Kane Thornton, for his tireless work supporting and leading the growth of Australia’s renewables industry and for being an all-round awesome human. Go well and see you soon Kane!
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