This message first appeared in our April 2025 newsletter. To stay up to date with the latest news and research on energy issues that impact consumers, sign up to receive our monthly newsletter below.
I am often struck by the ‘Goldilocks challenge’ of consumer advice (not too much, not too little, but just the right amount of information).
As a consumer, I feel intimidated (and irritated) by the volume of micro content that I’m constantly being bombarded by when I don’t need it - but I also feel the same way when I have to make an important decision without it. As with much about life, success often has to do with timing.
Frankly, I don’t need to remember the thread count of my sheets, but it’s helpful information to have available when choosing between options at the point of sale.
The same applies for a lot of the complex data around energy. For example, when people rent or buy homes or business premises, it would be enormously beneficial to understand their energy efficiency rating and performance.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published a pretty startling set of numbers this time last year. It noted that “an estimated 940,000 new gas appliances and 800,000 new resistive electric appliances are installed each year across Australia”. The estimated lifetime savings if consumers were to purchase more cost/energy efficient appliances at the point of sale would be $3.4 billion.
It’s up to consumers what they want to buy or not – and, no doubt, for many, these decisions are driven by immediate cost and access to capital. But there’s also a significant proportion of consumers who might make more economically optimal decisions, both for themselves and the broader community, if they had access to simple, reliable guidance, and enhanced energy performance standards and tools. This really isn’t all that much to ask.
We know that there is a lot of work already underway across the states and Commonwealth to provide this guidance for consumers – and we will continue to do whatever we can to promote it.
Australia lags the world in many, perhaps most, measures of energy performance (see an analysis here for example), in addition to this, huge amounts of investment have already been earmarked for supply-side initiatives. This means the time is absolutely right for Australian policy makers to put consumer guidance and support at the centre of its thinking.
