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The Australian Competition Tribunal today decided to uphold the appeal by Services Sydney against the Minister's decision not to declare certain services provided by Sydney Water. This means that the services may be subject to regulation. Services Sydney applied for declaration of these services in order to begin a business of retailing and processing of wastewater. For this purpose, it sought access to the transportation services provided by the wastewater pipes of Sydney Water.

Frontier (Australia) advised Sydney Water throughout the process of Application and appeal to the Tribunal.

The Australian Competition Tribunal today decided to uphold the appeal by Virgin Blue against the Minister's decision not to "declare" the Airside Service at Sydney Airport. This means that the services can be subject to regulation. The Decision is particularly interesting for its analysis of how access (or increased access) to the Airside Service might promote competition among airlines.

Frontier (Australia) advised Virgin Blue throughout the process of Application and the appeal to the Tribunal.

 

A crew, derived principally from Frontier (Melbourne) staff, won the inaugural Ruyton Regatta held on the Maribyrnong River Melbourne. The crew comprising Rob Bruce (Stroke), Tom Chan (3 seat), David Briggs (2 seat) and Peter Harris (Bow) held off 'highly fancied' opposition to win the final by half a canvass. The boat was christened "PeDaToRo" on the basis of team members' names (but the team also likes to think this loosely translates to "raging bull").

Only Rob Bruce had previous rowing experience, so it was a steep learning curve for the rest of the team. Patient coaches, Rob's encouragement, and boundless enthusiasm were keys to a successful and enjoyable event. Plans are afoot to mount a defence of the title for next season.

 

Dr. Philip Williams, chairman of Frontier Economics, was invited to participate in the sixth Australian Competition and Consumer Commission regulatory conference held on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 July 2005 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The theme of this year's conference was the relationship between essential facilities and downstream markets. Philip presented two papers: "Infrastructure and Export Markets : the underlying logic" and "Access to wastewater transportation: optimal regulation in the event of declaration".

The 28th Annual IAEE International Conference, held from 3rd June to 6th June 2005 at the Grand Hotel Taipei, focussed on Globalization of Energy: Markets, Technology and Sustainability. Frontier (Australia) presented at two sessions: Anthea Harris and Tony Steinke discussed Modelling of the impact of greenhouse gas mitigation policies;  Tony Steinke, Danny Price and James Allan presented on Modelling the competition benefits of electricity interconnectors.

Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW), a major rural water authority in Victoria, retained Frontier (Australia) to undertake an independent review of its pricing methodologies and models. The Review focussed on the appropriateness of the annuity approach used by G-MW to fund its infrastructure renewals.

Frontier recommended that the current forward-looking annuity should be replaced with a Regulatory Asset Base (RAB) approach. Under a RAB approach, the business finances investment (using the appropriate mix of debt and equity) and then recovers the costs from users over time through an annual capital charge. Frontier's recommendation was based on an assessment that the RAB approach provides greater scope for accountability of the organisation's capital expenditure decisions and the positive implications for efficiency.

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