Public policy

We regularly contribute to policy and legislative reviews undertaken by government, regulators, not-for-profit organisations and other bodies. We draw on our experiences and insights with customers and suppliers to inform energy and water policy decisions.

In 2019-2020, we contributed to public policy in the following ways:

Queensland Government

Review of Queensland’s energy legislation

Following consultations on an issues paper released by the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy in 2018, a regulatory impact statement was published in October 2019 for the review of Queensland’s energy legislation. We contributed to this review, which included proposals to modernise Queensland’s state energy laws by creating a future focused framework.

Review of Queensland’s dispute resolution for residential embedded network customers

We supported the Department’s consultation on dispute resolution for residential embedded network customers.This examined options to provide residential customers who are supplied electricity through embedded networks access to the free dispute resolution service provided by EWOQ.

Following this consultation, the Mineral and Energy Resources and other Legislation Amendment Bill passed through Queensland Parliament in May and amended the Energy and Water Ombudsman Act 2006.These amendments allowed for changes to be made in the future to the kinds of energy providers and customers EWOQ can assist, and it is anticipated that changes of this nature will happen in the near future when a new regulation under the Energy and Water Ombudsman Act 2006 is created.

Once this regulation is in force, it will expand our jurisdiction to include complaints about embedded network operators (exempt sellers) and provide Queenslanders who live in embedded networks – like apartment buildings, caravan parks and retirement villages – access to our free, fair and independent dispute resolution service.

ACCC

We made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Guideline on Prohibiting Energy Market Misconduct Bill and contributed to their consultation on the New Energy Tech Consumer Code.

AEMC

We made submissions to the Australian Energy Market Commission about:

  • regulating conditional discounting
  • introducing metering coordinator planned interruptions
  • consumer protections in an evolving market: New energy products and services.

AER

We wrote a letter of endorsement to the Australian Energy Regulator supporting the customer service incentive scheme.

Read our submissions.

See the official copy of the 2019-20 annual report, as tabled in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, on the Queensland Parliament's tabled papers website.