A message from the Advisory Council Chair

The past 12 months has been one of the most challenging periods for our nation as the global pandemic continues to impact all of us with changing conditions and snap lockdowns. Throughout 2020-21, the Energy and Water Ombudsman Queensland (EWOQ) continued to deliver its high-quality dispute resolution services for consumers and scheme participants, and successfully adapted to what has become the ‘new normal’.

Even from the start of the pandemic in early 2020, it was evident the consequences of COVID-19 would extend far beyond the 2019-20 reporting period. This has certainly been the case for the energy sector – for both industry and consumers – and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has been instrumental in significantly reducing energy related disconnections, debt collection and credit default listings in 2020-21 with their Statement of Expectations of energy business.

For EWOQ, 2020-21 was a year with lower than usual cases as energy complaints fell by 23 per cent as a result of the additional consumer protections provided by the AER. Complaints about water grew by 10 per cent to 350 complaints (though from a low baseline of 318 complaints in 2019-20).

With some of our members in lockdown interstate for months at a time, the Advisory Council to EWOQ continued to meet online during 2020-21. At our first meeting of the new financial year in August, we discussed concerns about the sustainability of regulatory expectations on energy companies to provide leniency with payment of energy bills and more time for customers to pay. Both the consumer and industry representatives around the virtual table agreed this wasn’t sustainable in the long term. It was valuable to hear the perspectives of both local and interstate-based industry representatives, feedback from a member on the frontline of consumers’ experiences, and the observations from members sitting on national groups.

We also talked in depth to the consultants who had delivered a draft of EWOQ’s independent review, which assessed its performance against six benchmarks for industry-based customer dispute resolution – accessibility, independence, fairness, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness.

We were pleased with the customer satisfaction results from the previous six months, with notable improvements including a 6.8 per cent increase in the ease of finding EWOQ to submit a complaint, a near 15 per cent increase in the effectiveness of services, and upward trends in fairness and independence of services.

Our November meeting included EWOQ’s plan for implementing recommendations from the independent review. The report confirmed EWOQ is an effective ombudsman scheme, operating with independence, fairness and impartially, and accurately captured the operational environment with the following comment:

We found a scheme that is in transition, with a very full agenda. It is subject to a Queensland Government review of its legislation, about to include embedded networks into its jurisdiction, in the midst of a major upgrade of its information technology, adapting to COVID-19 operating restrictions, preparing for the consumer complaints fallout of pandemic-related hardship, and on top of all of that, assisting our firm with an Independent Review.

EWOQ provided Advisory Council members with its response to the 26 review recommendations, which we were pleased to see were mostly aligned with initiatives already underway. These included establishing a data working group to improve data capture and reporting, and a systemic issue review group to assess what processes could be improved under the current jurisdiction. Some recommendations require legislative changes to the Energy and Water Ombudsman Act 2006, which is outside EWOQ’s control.

By our February 2021 meeting, there was concern expressed about rising consumer debt levels. February and March are usually a peak period for EWOQ as customers receive their power bills following increased electricity usage over the summer period. We all breathed a sigh of relief as the AER extended their Statement of Expectations by three months to the end of June, although accrued energy debt remains a concern. The additional protections provided to energy consumers during the year resulted in 20 per cent fewer cases for EWOQ, with a total of 6,064 cases closed in 2020-21. Billing, credit and provision were the top three issues consumers contacted EWOQ about, which was consistent with the previous year. More than 200 of the cases closed during 2020-21 were related to COVID-19, with almost two-thirds of these associated with billing.

Our Advisory Council membership had only minor changes this year. Consumer representatives included Ian Jarratt, Queensland Consumers Association; Robyn Robinson, Council on the Ageing Queensland; Sharon Edwards, Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network; and a new nominee from the Queensland Council of Social Service, Wendy Miller. We carried a vacancy for a small business representative. Industry members included our water representative Chris Owen, City of Gold Coast; David Ackland, EnergyAustralia; Iain Graham, Red/Lumo Energy; Jennifer Gates, Energy Queensland; and Rosemarie Price, Ergon Energy. David Ackland and Chris Owen’s terms concluded in October 2020, and we hope to see them both return to the Advisory Council, pending renewal of their membership.

I would like to thank all members for their enthusiasm, expertise and commitment over the past 12 months. Thank you also to the Ombudsman Jane Pires, her management team and staff at EWOQ, and the secretariat for their professionalism and dedication.

Anna Moynihan
Chair (until 18 February 2021)