We support the need for reforms to the Default Market Offer (DMO).
The DMO’s role is becoming more complex and it is increasingly unable to achieve its important consumer protection objectives, particularly as consumers continue to face high energy costs and broader cost-of-living pressures.
This review is an important opportunity to recalibrate the DMO to ensure it functions as a meaningful protection, particularly for vulnerable or disengaged consumers.
Our submission (PDF, 510.98KB) makes recommendations to clearly place consumer protection at the centre of the DMO framework and ensure consumer outcomes are given priority by the Australian Energy Regulator in any DMO determination.
We support moving the DMO to an ‘efficient price’ and ensuring standing offer customers are not paying competition costs that they do not benefit from.
In addition to reforming the DMO, we also call on governments and market bodies – through this review, the Better Energy Customer Experiences reforms and the AEMC’s pricing review – to consider broader reforms to address the systemic and longer-term factors contributing to affordability and energy hardship issues and poor consumer outcomes on pricing and tariffs.
