The Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Minister Bowen, has retracted this rule change request.

On 13 June 2018 the AEMC received a rule change request from the Australian Government to amend the National Energy Retail Rules to place an ongoing obligation on retailers to contact a certain group of retail energy customers, who are on typically higher-priced offers, with the aim of encouraging them to seek out a better alternative. A copy of the rule change request is available below.  

The Minister requested the withdrawal of this request as it is now superseded by a package of rule change requests seeking to amend the National Energy Retail Rules, submitted on 12 August 2024.

The package of consumer related rule change requests include:

• Ensuring energy plan benefits last the length of the contract  
• Preventing price increases for a fixed period under market retail contracts  
• Improving the ability to switch to a better offer  
• Assisting hardship customers
• Removing fees and charges  
• Improving the application of concessions to bills
• Removing unreasonable conditional discounts

See the letter from the Minister below for further details.