The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) is inviting organisations and individuals to apply for membership on its Customer Consultative Group (CCG), a key consumer panel providing input into retail energy consumer experiences.
The CCG is a critical part of our stakeholder engagement activities, most recently providing feedback on the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on consumers, which helped shape our Statement of Expectations of energy businesses.
For the first time, the AER has also appointed a Chair for the group. Elissa Freeman will facilitate the group and work as a conduit between the AER and the consumer group. She brings more than 15 years of experience advocating for the interests of consumers across a range of markets including energy, water, telecommunications and financial services.
Our vision is for the CCG to be involved across a range of AER functions, particularly those related to the National Energy Retail Law and National Energy Retail Rules. Our retail energy market functions cover New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and Queensland, and we are particularly targeting organisations that can represent consumers in those jurisdictions.
Members have the opportunity to provide the AER with perspectives and experiences on key energy consumer issues in a collaborative environment alongside other consumer representatives.
The AER seeks to balance a variety of interests and perspectives among the membership, and encourages national and state-based consumer representatives to apply. We are particularly seeking representatives with strong links to the following sectors:
- rural or regional consumers
- financially disadvantaged or vulnerable consumers
- Indigenous consumers
- culturally and linguistically diverse consumers (especially those that speak a language other than English at home)
- people with disability and/or experiencing chronic ill health
- younger and older consumers
- small businesses
- tenancy organisations.
CCG members will be appointed for a minimum of three years.
For information on the application process, terms of appointment and details of remuneration or to submit an Expression of Interest application, visit the Australian Government Tender System, AusTender.
Applications close 4pm (ACT Local Time) Tuesday 12 October 2021.
All questions related to CCG recruitment must be directed to RFO
accc [dot] gov [dot] au (subject: Customer%20Consultative%20Group%20-%20Membership) (RFO[at]accc[dot]gov[dot]au).