Queensland Consolidated Acts

NATIONAL GAS (QUEENSLAND) LAW - SECT 201

201 Preventing or hindering access to relevant facilities

(1) A person who owns, operates or controls a relevant facility, or an associate of the person, must not engage in conduct for the purpose of preventing or hindering the access of another person to a service provided by a relevant facility.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) , a person is taken to engage in conduct for a particular purpose if—

(a) the conduct is, or was, engaged in for that purpose or for a purpose that includes, or included, that purpose; and

(b) that purpose is, or was, a substantial purpose.

(3) A person may be taken to have engaged in conduct for the purpose referred to in subsection (1) even though, after all the evidence has been considered, the existence of that purpose is ascertainable only by inference from the conduct of the person or another person or from other relevant circumstances.

(4) Subsection (3) does not limit the manner in which the purpose of a person may be established for the purpose of subsection (1) .

(5) In this section—

(a) a reference to engaging in conduct is a reference to doing, or refusing to do, any act, including the following:

(i) refusing to supply a service provided by means of a relevant facility;

(ii) without reasonable grounds, limiting or disrupting a service provided by means of a relevant facility;

(iii) making, or giving effect to, a provision of a contract or arrangement;

(iv) arriving at, or giving effect to, a provision of an understanding;

(v) requiring the giving of, or giving, a covenant; and

(b) a reference to refusing to do an act includes a reference to—

(i) refraining, otherwise than inadvertently, from doing the act; or

(ii) making it known the act will not be done.

(6) Subsection (1) does not apply to conduct engaged in under an agreement, other than conduct in breach of this Law, the Regulations, the Rules or the Procedures, if—

(a) for conduct relating to a blend processing facility—the agreement was in force immediately before the Statutes Amendment (National Energy Laws) (Other Gases) Act 2023 commenced; and

(b) for conduct relating to any other type of facility—the agreement was in force immediately before the facility was prescribed as a relevant facility.