2016 has been another busy year for Infrastructure regulation, with a raft of reviews, inquiries and important decisions. This note identifies four of the major trends that have either emerged or accelerated during the year, all of which have the potential to significantly impact network owners, users, investors and regulators. 

In an important decision concerning the declaration of monopoly infrastructure under Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA), the Australian Competition Tribunal has set aside the decision of the Minister and declared a service provided by Port of Newcastle Operations Pty Ltd (PNO) by means of the shipping channels at the Port of Newcastle.

On 22 April 2016, the ACCC released the final report of its inquiry into the East Coast gas market (Report).  The Report makes 13 recommendations to government and noted two areas of future work for the ACCC, which may result in formal investigations.  

Over the course of a week, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims has made two speeches which reflect that the ACCC has commenced a new and significant policy battle in the regulation of infrastructure.
  

Our G+T regulated infrastructure team has published its annual review for 2014.

Recent developments at the Port of Newcastle and Port of Melbourne may hold important lessons for the regulatory strategies of port owners, users and potential investors in privatised Australian ports

Brookfield Multiplex Ltd (Brookfield), represented by Gilbert + Tobin, were successful in the High Court of Australia on 8 October 2014 whereby the full bench of the High Court unanimously allowed an appeal from a decision of the New South Wales Court of Appeal.