Overview
In August 2025, the final report on the legislative review of the effectiveness of the Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct Act (PEMM Act) was released. The review identified potential opportunities to strengthen the PEMM provisions to improve their effectiveness for consumers, as well as opportunities to streamline governance arrangements to better align with existing expertise and functions within market bodies.
We are seeking stakeholder views on the potential policy changes to the PEMM provisions identified in the final report on the PEMM Act review and reflected in recommendation 2. These are:
making the retail provision “symmetrical” – so that it operates to protect consumers both in periods where retailers’ costs are decreasing (captured under the current retail pricing provision) and where those costs are increasing
prohibiting market manipulation across markets to avoid circumstances where parties through their actions in one electricity related market seek to gain benefit in a parallel market, such as financial contract markets or ancillary services markets. This could either be implemented through amending existing provisions, or by introducing a new provision.
This paper explores the basis for these potential reforms, seeking stakeholder considerations on how such reforms would impact participants and customers. The paper also includes illustrative design options for the policy changes in order to aid stakeholder considerations on how any change could be designed to be effective in achieving the primary objectives of the PEMM Act and deliver a net benefit to customers. It also discusses the potential legislative approaches to implementing either of these two changes.
Another issue raised in the phase 1 final report is the appropriate governance arrangements for monitoring and enforcing the PEMM provisions. This paper also seeks feedback on potential amendments which could reduce regulatory overlap and duplication and ensure governance structures appropriately leverage existing expertise and functions within market bodies.
