What looks, acts and smells like a slow government takeover?

Big Bad Government is consuming more and more of the free economy.

This could be the new Communist Manifesto: Raise energy costs to the point industry is uncompetitive then subsidize it to keep it running. Command it to invest in things it might not have done, and tell it to turn on and off as a management tool to cover embarrassing holes in your state-directed-electricity-grid.

The giant Tomago Aluminium Smelter uses 10% of New South Wales electricity, and thanks to our obsession with pretending we can control the clouds, the cost of electricity is set to double when the current contract expires, which was about to drive it out of business.