‘Corporate price gouging’: sleight of hand for troubled economic waters ahead

And if their profits haven't accelerated, where is the justification for suggesting they are fuelling inflation?

Mr. Fels does localise his criticism to a number of industries, but again, where is his evidence of "gouging"?

And if there is an increase in prices, is it because of a deliberate corporate decision to increase profit margins, or has there been an increase in the underlying cost of doing business?

In other words, are businesses just passing on costs, or are they creating them by expanding margins?

What about energy costs?

Energy is singled out, in particular energy generators and suppliers like AGL. He's right to single out energy as it is present throughout the economic cycle.

But its cost is being driven by two factors.

One is the "energy transition" which is replacing reliable fossil-fuel-generated baseload power with unreliable wind and solar, and the other is external factors like the Ukraine war and energy policy in OPEC and the United States.

The price of energy is extremely cheap when renewables are available, often selling at literally giveaway prices of around -$50 a MWh. It can also be extraordinarily expensive with a top price capped at $15,500 (US$10,000).

Expensive electricity is a design feature of the way the government has slanted the electricity market and won't be fixed by Mr. Fels' policy of switching to a capacity market.

It's true AGL did post a massive half-year profit, but then it's only last year they posted a $1.2 billion loss, and then another $2.058 billion loss two years before that.

Energy is a volatile business.

Likewise, he complains about network charges, but what the price networks can charge is actually determined by a government regulator-how could that be price gouging?