"Everyone in the energy [sector] saw Labor’s win as a fait accompli, so they had a particular view of how the next 12 months would play out with energy policy. "Now the sector is a bit spooked as they are not sure of the next phase of energy policy." Reducing this wholesale price has been a major focus of the Morrison government, which pledged earlier this month to slash it down to $70 a megawatt hour. On Monday the wholesale price shot up to an average of $90/MWh in Victoria and $82/MWh in NSW when markets opened up from $83.40/MWh and $75.90/MWh respectively. Retailers use the wholesale market to lock in prices they will pay in the future and avoid the risks of more volatile spot markets. Before the election, the Morrison government had also proposed interventionist new "big stick" policies including the power to break up poorly behaving energy companies in order to drive this wholesale price down further.

Although the government did not get all of its measures through the last Parliament, some new rules were introduced in the wake of an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission review, which described the electricity market as "broken". Loading Mr McConnell said the "big stick" policies were a major contributor to the uncertainty. "What else is driving this spike is that everyone assumed the 'big sticks' were off the table, so these changes play into this as we don’t know what the [impact] of the 'big sticks' is going to look like," he said. On the day after the election, energy companies urged the Morrison government not to revive its "big stick" policies.

"The Morrison government is committed to a wholesale price target and have the policy levers needed to deliver this target," Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor said on Monday. He said the government still aimed to cut the wholesale price to less than $70/MWh by the end of 2021. An Australian energy analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the market reaction on Monday showed there was little faith in the government's forecasts of hitting $70/MWh with its current policies. "The forward prices have been pretty steady for the last few months. This is pretty much a direct challenge to Angus Taylor's authority," he said. John Huggart, chief executive of electricity advisory and management firm Energy Actions, played down the spike in prices.