Prepared remarks “Putting consumers and small business first in the transition to a cleaner economy” Panel Session, Smart regulation for a 21st century energy system, Australian Clean Energy Summit, 2016 Rosemary Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer, Energy Consumers Australia

“Let me start by explaining Energy Consumers Australia.

ECA is an independent, national organization. It was established in 2015 as part of a broad package of energy market reforms developed in 2012 by COAG Energy Council (COAG EC).

Our formal objective is to promote the long term interests of consumers ??? particularly residential and small business consumers ??? by providing and enabling influential, collegiate, evidence based advocacy.

We also administer a grants program that supports research and consumer advocacy by other organisations.

I joined in May 2015 as ECA’s first CEO coming from the telecommunications and media sectors.

These are both industries that have and still are experiencing profound change driven by technology in the hands of consumers and competitive markets enabling choice and innovation.

I’d like to share an assessment of the state of the energy market based on our Consumer Sentiment research which we published for the first time today.”

The full speech transcript can be read here.