Five years of energy price relief ahead, if…

Friday 23 January 2026

I noted yesterday that Australia’s East Coast is currently enjoying a flush of wholesale energy price relief, as a cool summer delivers cheaper, less frequently used gas-fired power to set the price for power.

The result has been the cheapest quarter of wholesale power since Albo’s energy vandals won government in 2022.

If we don’t do anything stupid in the near term, notably as Canberra refines its gas reservation policy, this price relief can continue for the next five years.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.