Globalisation, marketisation and the transformation of Australia's electricity sector

Following the style of analysis of Fagan and Webber’s Global Restructuring, this paper examines the marketisation, privatisation and globalisation of Australia’s electricity generation and transmission sectors. This paper shows how, in Australia’s spatially dispersed and politically fragmented space-economy, marketisation and privatisation policies tend to produce oligopolistic industries with the capacity to thwart market-based regulation. A case study of the vertically integrated and diversified firm AGL reveals the changing nature of globalisation, the shifting relationships between states and firms, and the limits of marketisation policies in small spatially dispersed economies.
Note: This paper was accepted for publication before the public dispute between the federal government and AGL in September 2017, over the proposed closure of the coal-fired Liddell Power Station in New South Wales. It therefore provides a detailed background to that dispute.