Australia is a nation of oligopolies.

Australia is a nation of oligopolies. From power networks to supermarkets, newspapers, packaging giants, banks and oil and gas majors.

For a nation enormous by landmass and tiny by population, this may be unavoidable. It means, though, that transparency is even more critical. Take energy policy. Both major parties seem content to allow what is effectively a cartel to run the gas sector: no visibility on gas reserves (supply) or of corporate sales (demand and price) means it is hardly a “market”.

As a result, domestic consumers and businesses have had extortionate prices foisted upon them thanks to an industry scare campaign claiming a gas shortage – a “supply cliff”, according to AGL – just before, globally, gas prices went through the floor. High energy prices are a drag on the entire economy. They affect everybody. And in electricity, where returns are regulated, the story has been similar: consumers skewered with rampant price increases because, under the government model for establishing prices and network returns, the more the networks spend, the more revenue they make – resulting in executive bonuses.

Meanwhile, thanks in large part to the money swishing around in the energy sector for lobbying politicians and bureaucrats – the oil and gas peak body, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, is one of the most heavily funded of them all – we have an energy policy put to shame by the likes of China and India.

Lumbering white elephants such as Adani’s Carmichael thermal coal project in the hinterland of the Great Barrier Reef, a project ludicrously uneconomic, is still backed in principle by the Coalition and Labor, although its bankers have long fled the scene.

A policy of, to paraphrase, digging holes in the ground willy-nilly to saturate a market in decline is sadly last century when renewable energy presents such brilliant opportunities.

Our elected representatives do listen, when the roar of public disapproval is loud enough. So, both major parties – indeed minor parties and independents, too – were moved to act against the scourge of multinational tax avoidance last year. Labor again has been more proactive in this area than the Coalition, but both still have timid policies. Their citizens are meanwhile being short-changed by billions every year while private power – largely wielded by the big four global accounting firms, which both advise government on tax and their corporate clients on how to best avoid it – infiltrates government agencies.

Once again, transparency is key. Transparency on secondments between the private and public sectors, transparency on policy formation, far greater transparency on the tax affairs of large corporations and wealthy private companies. For functioning democracy, this is what is necessary. Without it, we see demure policy made in the shadow of burgeoning private power. We see governments unable to act on ambitious reform as they are shackled to power wielded not by them but by business.