In response to a review of the national gas access regime, Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane, introduced the Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 to Parliament yesterday.

Macfarlane said the incentives would allow companies proposing to build new pipelines to apply to be fully exempted from regulation under the gas access regime for the first 15 years of operation. They would also allow exemption from price regulations for proposed international transmission pipelines delivering foreign gas to Australia.

The regulatory changes would help projects, such as the PNG gas pipeline proposal, to get off the ground, according to Macfarlane.

“It is absolutely critical that investors can get regulatory certainty, in a clear but light-handed fashion,” he said.

“These greenfields incentives are about cutting the regulatory burden, to make Australia’s energy market a more attractive place in which to invest. They will grow our energy market while building our security and diversity of energy supply.”

The incentives, when applied for, would be assessed by the National Competition Council before the relevant minister made the decision on whether to grant the application for exemption.

These initiatives were recently introduced into the national gas access regime following agreement by the state, territory and federal energy ministers on the Ministerial Council on Energy.

Macfarlane said the incentives would be implemented into legislation as soon as possible.