The GasNet access arrangement for the period 2003-07 was approved by the ACCC on 17 January 2003, and was subsequently varied by the Australian Competition Tribunal on 23 December 2003. On 24 August 2004, GasNet Australia (Operations) Pty Ltd proposed voluntary revisions to four specific areas of the access arrangement.
The ACCC decided to approve the revisions with respect to K-factor, weather pattern and timing, and decided not to approve the revision with respect to the refill tariff.
Implications of GasNet's proposed unscheduled revisions for the review process
The processes set out in the Code differ in a number of ways depending on whether revisions to access arrangements are scheduled or unscheduled.
Most access arrangments approved by the ACCC were either initial access arrangements or scheduled revisions to access arrangements. In particular, scheduled revisions are ones where a service provider is required to submit proposed revisions by the date set out in an existing access arrangement. In these cases, the ACCC may identify amendments in its draft and final decisions to which the service provider may respond by varying its proposal. If necessary the ACCC may draft and approve its own access arrangement (or revisions to an access arrangement). Such a decision may be reviewed by the Australian Competition Tribunal.
Under the Code a service provider may also submit proposed revisions to an existing access arrangement at any other time—that is, unscheduled revisions. GasNet's 2004 revisions proposal was unscheduled. In this situation the code did not provide for the ACCC to identify amendments in its draft or final decisions or for the service provider to respond by varying its proposal. Consequently the ACCC's decision will be to either approve or not approve the proposal. As there was no opportunity for the regulator to draft and approve its own revisions to the access arrangement there was no opportunity for a merits review by the Australian Competition Tribunal.