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Commonwealth act
This Act privatised the Moomba-Sydney gas pipeline — a major piece of energy infrastructure running from Moomba in South Australia to Sydney, NSW. The pipeline was owned and operated by a federal government body called the Pipeline Authority. This law transferred ownership to a private company (referred to throughout as "Newco", later identified as a company nominated by the Minister and connected to AGL — The Australian Gas Light Company).
The sale happened on 30 June 1994 (the "sale day").
Pipeline Authority employees are the people most directly affected. The Act:
The Commonwealth (Australian Government) retained some assets — particularly certain (legal rights to use someone else's land, usually to run a pipeline across it). These easements were split between Newco and the Commonwealth, or kept entirely by the Commonwealth, depending on their purpose.
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Direct links to the current provisions in Moomba-Sydney Pipeline System Sale Act 1994.
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View on official registerSourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
States and Territories are prevented from charging stamp duty (a tax on property transfers) on any of the transactions involved in the sale — saving the deal from potentially significant tax costs.
This is a classic 1990s privatisation law. It transferred a piece of national energy infrastructure from public to private hands, protected workers during the transition, and cleaned up the government's balance sheet by extinguishing debts and abolishing the regulatory body. The pipeline carried natural gas serving millions of Australians, so the ownership change had long-term implications for energy pricing and infrastructure management.