AGL recently participated in the Senate Inquiry process for the Consumer Data Right Bill 2019, making a formal submission and appearing before the Senate Committee in the public hearing on 5 March 2019.
AGL has supported the establishment of a national Consumer Data Right regime as a major reform program that will enable consumers to access data, make informed decisions and engage in the energy retail sector. This will subsequently drive innovation and competition.
However, AGL has voiced concerns with the pace of change and throughout each stage of this process about the changing nature, scope and impact the Bill and subsequent decision-making tools will have on consumer trust and confidence in the system.
In particular, we remain concerned that the laws before Parliament to enable the right are not focusing on the consumer as the end beneficiary but instead focus on empowering and enabling data sharing between data holders and accredited data recipients in the broadest possible sense.
As a result, it does not feel as though the consumer is being put in the middle of the decision making in designing the framework.
Our submission to the Senate Committee is available here.
The below image gives a quick snapshot of the consultation elements over the last 6 months. It is important to note that energy consideration for a consumer data right has only occurred at the pre-legislative stage and based on a narrow data access threshold being metering data from smart meters.
Since the commencement of the legislative stage, August 2018, the focus has been predominately on banking and the type of data access has broadened and yet to be finalised under legislation. It is imperative legislators finalise this work prior to passing the Bill. Giving consumers and industry certainty on the type of data that can be accessed is an important element in building trust and certainty in the final CDR framework.
