Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Communications) Share this | Hansard source

As I outlined in my previous answer, cabinet met last night and agreed to a pathway forward, given the reality of the politics that we're in at the moment. The reality for the NEG is that it will have to be pursued through state legislation to ensure the reliability guarantee is met.

What we are seeking to do is to ensure that Australian businesses and households have affordable power. To that end, we've adopted the ACCC's measures in conjunction with ensuring that those big power companies that continue to rip Australians off, that continue to rip businesses off, will be held to account through a tough regime of sanctions, if you like, including divestiture, to address the concentration of power generation assets in this country, which have led to a decrease in competition and an increase in power prices for all Australians.