In November 2018 we announced proposed pricing changes to take effect from 1 July 2019 and proposed a consultation framework we would use to engage with you. We sought feedback from you about both the consultation framework and the proposed pricing change itself.

The deadline for feedback about the consultation process framework was originally 13 December 2018 and we’ve been in discussions with those of you who provided feedback since that time to understand the concerns raised.

We received a limited amount of feedback from only three retail service providers during this time. The feedback focussed solely on the consultation process framework. We received no feedback regarding the level of the price changes.

In light of this feedback, we’ve decided to change the proposed consultation process and provide a further period for you to consider the proposed price increases from 1 July 2019 and to provide additional feedback if you wish.

What’s changing in the consultation process?

We’ve now closed feedback on the proposed consultation process.

Those of you who provided feedback told us they were concerned that our proposed consultation process diverged from the prescribed consultation process under the Reference Offer in two ways:

• it was not a multi-party consultation; and
• it did not aim to achieve consensus. 

Our considered view is that multi-party consultation which aims to achieve consensus in the context of price changes raises unacceptable Commerce Act risk. The Reference Offer recognises we aren’t required to give effect to any part of the prescribed consultation process if to do so would put us in breach of the Commerce Act. 

On that basis, we adopted the Reference Offer process to the extent possible whilst staying on the right side of the Commerce Act. The end result was a bilateral rather than multi-party consultation and one where the parties expressly acknowledge they are not aiming to achieve consensus. These are the only features of the Reference Offer consultation process we have not implemented.

We’ve continued our discussions with those of you who gave feedback to better understand the perceived benefit of multi-party consultation as compared to bilateral consultation. The key theme from those discussions was that retail service providers (RSP) enjoyed the benefit of hearing the view points and feedback of other RSPs under a multi-party consultation. This opportunity doesn’t exist in bilateral consultation.

In response to this feedback, we’re committing to provide a summary of consultation feedback to all RSPs as part of future consultations on price changes under the Reference Offer. The feedback summary for this consultation can be found below. 

It is important to note that in preparing this summary our default position is that we won’t identify the RSPs who provided feedback nor what feedback belongs to which RSP. We’re open to making a connection between you and your feedback as part of the summary, if you tell us you want us to do so. This means when you provide us with feedback, you’ll need to think about, and confirm to us, whether you want it to remain anonymous or not.

What’s happening with the proposed price changes?

Given we’ve changed the underlying consultation process and in doing so provided you with new information, we’re extending the consultation period for the proposed price changes until 20 March 2019.

Next steps

Please provide written feedback to your Service Delivery Manager and advise whether you would like this to be anonymised in our summary.

* Although we only need to provide 60 working days’ notice of a price change under the Reference Offer, we are aiming to confirm the pricing from 1 July 2019 in advance of what is contractually required.