On 13 August 2019, Infrastructure Australia tabled a comprehensive Audit on Australia’s infrastructure across transport, water, energy, telecommunications and social infrastructure[1]. The objective of the Audit is to take a user perspective of Australia’s infrastructure and create discussion around key challenges and opportunities. We believe the Audit is an excellent forum for lively debate around key issues that will have material impacts on Australians. We welcome the Audit and congratulate Infrastructure Australia on bringing this Audit forward and into the public domain for healthy and constructive debate.
Venture Insights is a market-leading commentator on how technology disrupts the world we live in. We believe that technology can be a force for good and that if harnessed well can provide significant benefits to people. We call this the “technology dividend” and have focused on a number of key sector groups including digital media, telecommunications, finance, energy and health.
In this report, we review the energy component of the Audit and provide some of our own views on what is being presented. The Audit was broken into 6 areas (which originated from the Finkel review): (a) Affordability and competitive prices; (b) Secure and reliable and sustainable energy); (c) Planning for our future energy networks; (d) New opportunities for community choice; (e) Delivering energy in remote communities; and (f) Harnessing Australia’s energy advantage. We respond in turn to each of these areas.
Key takeaways
/ We believe Infrastructure Australia has provided a welcomed and comprehensive ‘user perspective’ on energy infrastructure. The Audit provides 11 challenges yet only 8 opportunities for consideration and invites submissions ahead of its final recommendation due in 2021.
/ We believe that the Audit does not highlight the significant economic opportunity that would arise from having a coherent Government energy policy that accelerates our transition to renewables domestically and allows Australia to take a global role in this process. The lack of Government energy policy is well documented and acts as a disincentive to invest in future energy infrastructure assets.
/ We believe that renewables and demand-side management are the key opportunities to reduce the cost of electricity in Australia. The Audit correctly identifies that affordability of energy is a key issue for household consumers (electricity prices have risen 63% in the past decade[2]), yet it did not identify any opportunities in the section on “Affordability and Competitive Prices”.
/ We believe that distributed electricity (e.g. solar and batteries installed in the homes) is a major opportunity to reduce costs for households over the next 15 years. The Audit correctly identifies that new forms of large-scale storage are increasingly available, including pumped hydroelectric and battery assets that will allow for appropriate new firming capacity and complement variable renewable energy bids and aid the transition to the new electricity mix in the section on “Secure and reliable and sustainable energy”.
/ We believe that a master plan should be put in place by the government to move towards a much more flexible, distributed electricity network, not just focus on bottlenecks around renewables. The Audit correctly identifies Renewable Energy Zones that aims to help direct efficient investments and will be prioritised for connection to the grid in its section on “Planning for our future energy networks”.
/ We agree with Infrastructure Australia that demand response and electric vehicles provide consumer choice that will substantially change the way in which we consume energy. The Audit correctly identifies demand response and electric vehicles as opportunities in its section on “New opportunities for consumers choice”. We also agree that with Infrastructure Australia that the lack of Government (particularly Federal) incentives to accelerate these trends as being a major hurdle for consumers to bridge.
/ We would go further than Infrastructure Australia opportunity and suggest that new local energy supply and storage solutions should entirely replace diesel generation in remote and regional areas. The Audit correctly suggests that new energy supply should complement diesel generation, which we believe is far too unambitious an opportunity in its section on “Delivering energy in remote communities”.
/ Finally, we agree with Infrastructure Australia view to transition heavily to renewables domestically and become a global leader in renewables globally, but believe that exploiting or gas reserves is a ‘yesteryear’ type project that will have a limited long term economic benefit and continues to foster a ‘fossil fuel’ mentality. The Audit identifies in its section on “Harnessing Australia’s energy advantage” we agree with two of them but would ditch the third one on energy policy grounds despite the short-term economics that could be exploited. The effort and resources are better spent on renewables which will be with us for beyond the 15 years’ time horizon if not forever.
[2] The Guardian – Energy https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/15/australias-household-power-prices-rose-63-in-past-decade-says-watchdog
Introduction
Infrastructure Australia, charged with the responsibility of driving better infrastructure outcomes for Australia, recently published its second national Audit of Infrastructure. The first audit was conducted four years ago in 2015. The objective of the Audit is to develop “a national evidence base to guide infrastructure decision-making and focus attention on the investments and reforms that will improve both our living standards and national productivity”.
“Infrastructure is fundamental to our quality of life. It connects us to jobs, education and other opportunities. It allows us to travel safely home to our families at the end of each day and enables us to keep in touch with friends near and far. It provides us with the essential services we rely on – from energy, water, and telecommunications, to social infrastructures such as hospitals, schools and parks, and access to goods, such as fresh food, that most Australians could not imagine living without.
Most of our networks work well and support our lives every day in ways we have grown to take for granted. But infrastructure is only as good as the services it delivers to users. When it comes to infrastructure, the community has told us what matters most – access, quality and cost.
Too often, our infrastructure doesn’t meet these needs. Congestion, crowding, rising bills, outages and declining service standards can undermine our confidence in the infrastructure we use. These are clear signals that our infrastructure needs to work harder to support Australia into the future..”
Source: Julieanne Alroe, Chair, Infrastructure Australia, August 2019
The 2019 Audit covers key infrastructure:
Transport;
Energy;
Water;
Telecommunications; and
Social infrastructure (new in this audit).
The 2019 Audit identifies the major challenges and opportunities facing Australia’s infrastructure over the next 15 years and beyond with the focus being on what matters to users and focusing on outcomes for them. Infrastructure Australia’s hope is that better long term decisions in Infrastructure will enhance user utility and quality of life for Australians.
The process involves submissions to be made
The Audit provides a list of challenges and opportunities and invites interested parties to provide submissions. In 2020, Infrastructure Australia will then provide its final recommendations, which aim to inform the next major round of infrastructure investment in Australia.
The role of the Infrastructure Australia Audit is not to identify solutions, but rather to “have a clear understanding of the problems we are seeking to solve”. To do this the Audit identifies issues, gaps, problems and untapped potential in expressing these as:
Challenges: Where a change in how we deliver infrastructure is required to avoid future costs or erosion of our quality of life or productivity.
Opportunities: Where infrastructure could unlock future growth and development and improve quality of life or productivity beyond the status quo.
If you are interested in making a submission to Infrastructure Australia as part of the process you should contact Venture Insights, as we can assist with background research and scripting submissions.
Infrastructure Australia’s overall messages (across all infrastructure areas) are that (a) we are moving in the right direction; (b) that low-density areas and lower socioeconomic groups are being let down overall; and (c) that prices are growing in real terms (of which energy is the main culprit)
Infrastructure Australia’s key messages are that technology is changing everything and that we need to move more quickly to keep up with our fast-growing cities. The key messages are summarised as follows:
Figure 1. Outcomes and impacts on the Infrastructure Australia Audit
Outcomes for users
Access: Access to choice in infrastructure services has improved since the 2015 Audit, largely due to new technology. While access to choice is strongest in fast-growing cities, it is weaker in other areas, and for people from lower socio-economic and diverse backgrounds.
Quality: The quality of infrastructure services is high for most Australians in urban areas; however, population growth is impacting some services. Low-density areas, emerging industries and lower socio-economic groups’ needs are not met.
Cost: Average household infrastructure costs have grown in real terms but decreased as a proportion of household incomes. However, these costs disproportionally impact low-income households.
Impacts on Communities
Fast-growing cities: Infrastructure in our four largest cities is failing to keep pace with rapid population growth, particularly on the urban fringe.
Smaller cities and regional centres: These areas are growing as service hubs for their neighbouring regions, including supporting growth as satellites of fast-growing cities.
Small towns, rural communities and remote areas: The quality of infrastructure services for people living in remote communities does not meet the standards Australians expect.
Developing regions and northern Australia: Infrastructure can catalyse quality of life and productivity by improving connectivity and efficiency.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
The Audit highlights that energy costs are impacting our global competitiveness and a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions
From an energy perspective the Audit highlights three important factors;
Australia is falling behind and losing its competitiveness. Australia’s national productivity and global competitiveness rely on efficient infrastructure networks; however, we are falling behind international competitors. Australia currently ranks 18th in the world for ease of doing business, having dropped over the past decade from 9th;
Infrastructure is the most significant contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions; however, progress to reduce emissions is inconsistent and policy directions remain uncertain. For example, while electricity emissions have decreased by around 3% since 2015, emissions in the transport sector have increased by almost 9%; and
Policy uncertainty and poor coordination has affected investment in the energy sector and delayed an effective response to rising energy prices, impacting energy reliability and increasing community anxiety regarding climate change. Over the past decade, the unit price of electricity has risen in real terms by 56%,16 while retail gas for households has risen by 45% over the same period.
The state of the energy sector: household users are both dissatisfied with rising prices and frustrated with the leaderless and uncoordinated approach taken by governments to tackle climate change
In respect of Energy, the Audit concludes that many users, unfortunately, are dissatisfied, summarised as follow.
“For many years, Australia has held a comparative advantage in energy costs, as well as an abundance of natural energy assets. This has propelled our economy, supporting improvements in the productivity of our businesses and helping us to compete in global markets. There are indications that this advantage is slipping, but Australia can overcome current challenges and spur a new wave of growth off the back of our energy resources and industry capability.
Much of Australia’s energy infrastructure is fixed, costly and long-lived. Its markets are highly complex and sensitive to change. These characteristics are adding to the challenges of a sector that is undergoing a transformation, adapting to new generation sources and consumer preferences. This energy transformation is occurring against a backdrop of climate change and ongoing policy uncertainty, with inadequate coordination across Australia’s governments on how best to manage changes. The result has meant a poor deal for many users, with bills rising rapidly over recent years and most users expressing dissatisfaction with the affordability of their energy services.”
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Uncertainty of renewable policy is the biggest inhibitor of efficient deployment of investments
The extended period of policy uncertainty for the energy industry has created an inefficient deployment of investment in the financial markets. Investors favour climate-aligned portfolios. Investors have been and are concerned that they will continue to bear the climate change’s physical risks (i.e. the direct impact on asset values) and transition risks (i.e. flow-on effects from public policy responses).
“Investors were actively looking for opportunities to support climate solutions and embed climate change into the management of portfolios”
Source: Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change, “Renewables policy uncertainty spooks investors”, The Australian, 20 August 2019
ASIC attempted to increase the transparency of economic impact on climate change risk by enforcing climate-change disclosure to a selected list of companies. Similarly, Reserves Bank duty governor Guy Debelle, has highlighted the importance of consistency and informative disclosure that is helpful for decision-making.[3]
“Existing and potential investors, creditors, insurers and customers are all increasingly demanding more specific information about a corporate entity’s exposure to, and management of, climate-related risks”
Source: Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), “Even regulators now fact in climate risks”, The Australian, 20 August 2019
[3] The Australian, “Even regulators now fact in climate risks”, 20 August 2019
Even prudential regulator, APRA, has provided guidance on managing the financial risk of climate change.[4] However, there has been no federal policy so far. The fear of uncertainty in renewable policy in Australia will drive investors to look for opportunities offshore.
Challenges and opportunities
Venture Insights believes that our infrastructure opportunities far outweigh the challenges in the medium to long term. Challenges are short term and highly costly to those that own legacy generation assets and coal reserves
The Audit identified both challenges and opportunities in several areas:
Affordable and competitive prices;
Secure, reliable and sustainable energy;
Transitioning to Australia’s future energy fuel mix;
Planning our future energy networks;
New opportunities for consumer choice;
Delivering energy in remote communities; and
Harnessing Australia’s energy advantage.
Affordable and competitive prices
We were surprised that Infrastructure Australia did not see major opportunities to improve affordability and reduce energy costs via increased capacity in renewables and storage, particularly over the 15-year period. We would also consider whether the market would become more competitive if retailers and generators were bifurcated such that retailers did not have the incentive to oversell ‘electricity and fossil fuels’.
Figure 2. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - affordable and competitive prices
Challenges
Transparent and affordable electricity prices are essential to reducing pressure on household budgets, particularly for lower-income households. A continued rise in energy bills will place an added burden on many households and may reinforce inequality. Ongoing complexity of bills will add to user costs and frustrations.
Regaining energy price competitiveness is important for lower business costs and improving the productivity of Australian firms. Australia risks becoming uncompetitive in some energy-intensive industries due to rising energy costs.
Opportunities
No opportunities identified
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Venture Insights believes that renewables and demand-side management are the key opportunities to reduce the cost of electricity in Australia. The Audit correctly identifies that affordability of energy is a key issue for household consumers (electricity prices have risen 63% in the past decade[5]), yet it did not identify any opportunities in the section on “Affordability and Competitive Prices”.
Secure, reliable and sustainable energy
We believe there is a role for distributed electricity (rooftop solar and batteries) beyond large scale projects which was identified in the report.
[4] APRA https://www.apra.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/apra-step-scrutiny-climate-risks-after-releasing-survey-results
[5] The Guardian – Energy https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/15/australias-household-power-prices-rose-63-in-past-decade-says-watchdog
Figure 3. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - secure and reliable and sustainable energy
Challenges
Balancing reliability and affordability in line with users’ willingness to pay will be an ongoing challenge in energy systems with rapidly transforming wholesale and network characteristics. Failure to get the balance right will result in higher costs for users due to inefficient investments, or poorer reliability for users.
Governments, regulators, operators and service providers need to manage growing risks to Australia’s energy systems and fuel sources, including risks from climate change, cyberattack or disruptions to the fuel supply. Failure to effectively mitigate risks to energy services could have substantial consequences for the economy.
Despite positive progress on the development of national climate policy, ongoing politicisation of the issue and policy inconsistency between levels of government reduce market certainty. Uncertainty prevents timely investment in long-term infrastructures such as electricity generation and gas pipelines, increasing risks and costs to users.
Many major coal generation assets are ageing and approaching retirement. The capacity they provide will need to be replaced. In the National Electricity Market (NEM), this capacity needs to be replaced or there may be impacts on reliability or competition. In the WEM, where there is overcapacity there may be scope to reduce surplus capacity. In both cases, there is a risk to the order of the market.
As the penetration of small and large-scale renewables increases across the network, additional investment in networks and generation will be required to manage reliability and service levels. This will increase capital and operational costs in networks but will be needed to maintain balanced supply standards.
Opportunities
New forms of large-scale storage are increasingly available, including pumped hydroelectric and battery assets. Introduction of appropriate new firming capacity will complement variable renewable energy bids and aid the transition to the new electricity mix.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Venture Insights believes that distributed electricity (e.g. solar and batteries installed in the homes) is a major opportunity to reduce costs for households over the next 15 years. Venture Insights’ recent report predicts that the ongoing decline in battery prices, lower feed-in tariffs and increased government intervention will result in a sharp uplift in the installation of batteries, which will ultimately be sold as part of a bundle with solar panels.[6] As households are capable of self-generating and storing their electricity, they are able to realise cost savings. The Audit correctly identifies that new forms of large-scale storage are increasingly available, including pumped hydroelectric and battery assets that will allow for appropriate new firming capacity and complement variable renewable energy bids and aid the transition to the new electricity mix in the section on “Secure and reliable and sustainable energy”.
Planning for our future energy networks
Venture Insights believes that a master plan should be put in place by the government to move towards a much more flexible, distributed electricity network, not only focus on bottlenecks around renewables.
[6] Venture Insights, Batteries powering our residential homes https://www.ventureinsights.com.au/product/batteries-powering-residential-homes/
Figure 4. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - Planning for our future energy networks
Challenges
Transmission networks need to respond to the new generation in areas not currently served or without sufficient spare capacity. The outcome of these decisions will be paid for by users over many years. It is in the interests of users that the transition is efficient and guided by well-targeted investment.
Opportunities
Coordinating investment in new generation and network assets in Renewable Energy Zones can promote investment in renewable generation, provide clarity for network investors, increase scale and lower costs for new generation providers. Optimising investment in Renewable Energy Zones will lead to lower wholesale and network costs for users over time.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
The Audit correctly identifies Renewable Energy Zones that aims to help direct efficient investments and will be prioritized for connection to the grid.
New opportunities for community choice
Venture Insights agrees with Infrastructure Australia that demand response and electric vehicles provide consumer choice that will substantially change the way in which we consume energy. The Audit correctly identifies demand response and electric vehicles as opportunities.
Figure 5. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - new opportunities for community choice
Challenges
Home solar and storage can help users to save costs and control energy use, but government policies are uncoordinated. Developments in behind the meter energy systems risk leaving some users behind, while uncoordinated policies and subsidies add to costs over the long term.
Opportunities
Demand response from users can defer or avoid expensive new electricity infrastructure investment, and better use existing infrastructure. This can save users the passed-on costs of higher peaks.
Electric vehicles could provide additional storage capacity to stationary electricity systems. There are regulatory and technical barriers to be overcome. This may provide a means of converging stationary and non-stationary energy at the household level.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Venture Insights also agrees with Infrastructure Australia that the lack of Government incentives (particularly from the Federal Government) is a major hurdle to ‘catching the renewables’ trend and difficult for consumers to bridge the short-term feasibility gap.
Delivering energy in remote communities
Venture Insights would go further than Infrastructure Australia opportunity and suggest that that new local energy supply and storage solutions should entirely replace diesel generation in remote and regional areas. The Audit suggests that new energy supply should complement diesel generation, which we believe is far too unambitious an opportunity.
Figure 6. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - delivering energy in remote communities
Challenges
The costs of serving remote and regional areas remain high, with customers in those areas also often receiving poor reliability outcomes. Poor energy reliability in remote areas undermines the quality of life and opportunities for growth and investment.
The current regulatory regime does not optimise emerging opportunities for energy supply to regional and remote communities via stand-alone power systems. Without regulatory reform, rural and remote users may not take up lower cost and more reliable energy solutions, and overall costs may be increased for all users and taxpayers.
Opportunities
There is an opportunity to leverage new local energy supply solutions that either replace or complement diesel generation in remote and regional areas. This can increase amenity, reliability and affordability for local communities and businesses.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Harnessing Australia’s energy advantage
Venture Insights agrees with two of the three opportunities but would ditch the third one (onshore gas reserves) on energy policy grounds despite the short-term economics that could be exploited.
Figure 7. Challenges and opportunities in the energy market - harnessing Australia’s energy advantage
Challenges
Not applicable
Opportunities
Australia could develop new industries based on cheap and abundant new sources of energy, including large-scale solar and wind. This could attract energy-intensive industries to Australia or allow the export of products with high levels of embedded cheap energy. This may require wider use of existing infrastructure and new infrastructure investment.
Australia could leverage its energy resources to provide global leadership and innovation on energy research and development through its high-quality research and education institutions. New discoveries and lower costs can provide Australia with an advantage of applied energy use, supporting new industries.
Australia’s regions have significant reserves of onshore gas. However, there are restrictions on accessing reserves across many regions. Unlocking these reserves could provide substantial export growth potential, as well as opportunities for lower prices for domestic users.
Source: “An Assessment of Australia’s Future Infrastructure Needs”, The Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019, June 2019
Venture Insights agrees with Infrastructure Australia’s view to transition heavily to renewables domestically and become a global leader in renewables globally.
Exploiting our gas reserves is a ‘yesteryear’ type project with some shortand medium-term benefits but will have a limited long-term economic benefit and continues to foster a ‘fossil fuel’ mentality. The effort and resources are better spent on renewables, which will be with us for beyond the 15 years’ time horizon if not forever.
Conclusion: why are we not transitioning faster and chasing a bigger market share of the global renewables’ technology market?
We believe the Infrastructure Australia’s 2019 Audit has identified significant opportunities for Australia to focus on. Australia is positioned to become a global leader in renewables and associated technologies and that Government needs to become increasingly active and provide a pro-renewables policy that creates both lower-cost energy for Australia as well as developing expertise that we can export globally. The transition to the ‘future state’ of renewables is occurring at a far greater pace and Australia with an unnatural advantage needs to move far more quickly to capitalise in this one in a generation opportunity.
Appendix
Key data points and charts
Whilst almost everyone has an electricity connection, gas connections are more varied
Figure 8. Gas connection rates by state and territory, and between cities and regions
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2014)
Note: Capital city and rest of state breakdowns are not available for Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory
Electricity cost has risen much more than general inflation in the last decade but the growth in household energy costs has not been equal across Australia. Noticeably, Perth and Darwin have risen less than other capital cities
Figure 9. The electricity price index for the last decade
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2019) Note: National electricity market (NEM) capital city index is unweighted
Increases in the network and wholesale costs are responsible for the largest share of household price increases
Figure 10. Cost of electricity breakdown (2007 to 2018)
Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (2018)
Value of investment and asset base for the regulated national electricity market (NEM) transmission and distribution is $9,100 per customer[7]
Figure 11. Growth in the distribution asset bases and capital costs per customer
Source: Australian Energy Regulator (2018)
[7] Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019
Figure 12. Growth in the transmission asset bases and capital costs per customer
Source: Australian Energy Regulator (2018)
Energy costs over the past 10 years have become even more regressive. Customers in the lowest income quintile have seen a greater increase in the proportion of their total income spent on energy than they spent 10 years ago
Figure 13. Energy cost as a percentage of income
Source: Australian Council of Social Service (2018)
The price of energy in Australia has risen compared to other nations. While Australia has held a strong advantage over many of its competitors through relatively low costs for energy, this advantage has eroded over recent decades
Figure 14. Electricity price relative to purchasing power in comparable countries (2004 vs 2016)
Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Energy costs for key industries are rising which is working against productivity gains
Figure 15. Energy cost, inputs cost and the value of outputs indices
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018)
A survey by Energy Consumer Australia showed that up to 60% of respondents across each state and territory were willing to reduce their energy usage at times of hot weather without incentive
Figure 16. Consumer willingness to reduce energy consumption at times of hot weather
Source: Energy Consumers Australia (2018)
The value of coal as a cheap electricity input has now shifted. Over a relatively short space of time, variable wind and solar PV at a large scale will challenge the coal as the cheapest sources of supply
Figure 17. Levelised cost of energy
Source: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (2018)
Note: Levelised cost of energy by technology and category, calculated for 2020. Values are inflation-adjusted to 2018–19
The capital costs of solar PV and batteries are expected to continue to drop until 2030
Figure 18. The projected cost of solar PV and batteries
Source: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (2018)
Higher and middle-income households are more likely to install rooftop solar PV
Figure 19. Number of solar households by income quintiles
Source: Australian Council of Social Service (2018)
Consumers can shift their demand across the day to optimise consumption and save costs
Figure 20. Demand peak shifting
Source: Northwest Power and Conservation Council (2019)
Australia has abundant wind and solar resources
Figure 21. Australian wind and solar resources
About Venture Insights
Venture Insights is an independent company providing research services to companies across the media, telco and tech sectors in Australia, NZ and Europe, with a special focus on new disruptive technologies.
For more information go to www.ventureinsights.com.au or contact us at info@ventureinsights.com.au
Important notice: By accepting this research note, the recipient agrees to be bound by the following terms of use. This research note has been prepared by Venture Insights Pty Ltd and published solely for guidance and general informational purposes to authorised users under the terms of a licence agreement between Venture Insights Pty Ltd and its subscriber. You need to be expressly authorised to use it, and it may only be used for your internal business purposes and no part of this note may be reproduced or distributed in any manner including, but not limited to, via the internet, without the prior permission of Venture Insights Pty Ltd. If you have not received this note directly from Venture Insights Pty Ltd, your receipt is unauthorised. If so, or you have any doubt as to your authority to use it, please return this note to Venture Insights immediately.
This research note may contain the personal opinions of research analysts based on research undertaken. This note has no regard to any specific recipient, including but not limited to any specific investment objectives, and should not be relied on by any recipient for investment or any other purposes. Venture Insights Pty Ltd gives no undertaking to provide the recipient with access to any additional information or to update or keep current any information or opinions contained herein. The information and any opinions contained herein are based on sources believed to be reliable, but the information relied on has not been independently verified. Neither Venture Insights Pty Ltd nor its officers, employees and agents make any warranties or representations, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of information and opinions contained herein and exclude all liability to the fullest extent permitted by law for any direct or indirect loss or damage or any other costs or expenses of any kind which may arise directly or indirectly out of the use of this note, including but not limited to anything caused by any viruses or any failures in computer transmission.
Any trade marks, copyright works, logos or devices used in this Audit are the property of their respective owners and are used for illustrative purposes only. Unless otherwise disclosed, Venture Insights has no affiliation or connection with any organisations mentioned in this Audit. However, the information contained in this Audit has been obtained from a variety of sources, including in some cases the organisations themselves. In addition, organisations mentioned in this Audit may be clients of Venture Insights.
The recipient hereby indemnifies Venture Insights Pty Ltd and its officers, employees and agents and their related entities against any direct or indirect loss or damage or any other costs or expenses of any kind which they may incur directly or indirectly as a result of the recipient’s use of this note.
NIGEL PUGH
nigel.pugh@ventureinsights.com.au
CHRIS BLYTH
chris.blyth@ventureadvisory.com.au
© 2019 Venture Insights Pty Ltd. All rights reserved
Level 8 333 George Street Sydney, NSW 2000
Level 6
90 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
www.ventureinsights.com.au