The ACCC says the operator of the world's biggest coal port is expressing the power of an unregulated monopoly in trying to lure customers into long-term deals ahead of a legal challenge to a new pricing regime.
There is telling, joyful irony in the Port of Newcastle’s exercise of discounted channel fees to encourage its coalmining customers into decade-long contracts to mitigate future regulatory risk.
The arrangements that port management ventilated with miners last week are an attempt to mimic the genius that is Aurizon’s long march around the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) and its enforcement of what has proven to be one of Australia’s most destructively convoluted regulatory environments.
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Matthew Stevens writes on business, specialising in mining, energy and opinion. Matthew is a senior business writer and columnist. Email Matthew at matthew.stevens@afr.com.au
