Providing feedback about our regulatory work and communication with stakeholders
Stakeholder survey
Overview
The commission conducts an annual stakeholder survey to evaluate our performance and help drive improvements to the way we operate as a regulatory entity.
The survey program in 2023 conducted independently by SEC Newgate included an online survey and one-on-one interviews.
Improving how we regulate
The stakeholder survey provides information about:
- how we interact with the sectors and the communities we serve
- how well we keep stakeholders informed and administer our functions
- our processes and the quality of our decisions
Maintaining effective engagement
Effective engagement with our stakeholders is critical in our role as Victoria’s regulator of essential services. Our stakeholder engagement framework outlines our charter for engagement and consultation to inform our decisions and regulatory practice. View our work programs for more information about our yearly goals.
View our latest stakeholder survey results
We invited over 860 stakeholders to participate in an online census-approach survey in late 2023 and we also undertook 30 one-on-one in-depth interviews. The survey was designed to measure stakeholder perceptions across a range of key areas and metrics.
Key Findings
193 out of approximately 860 stakeholders undertook the online survey and 30 stakeholders participated in one-on-one interviews.
Overall, 59% of stakeholders were satisfied with how the commission performs its functions as regulator, up from 52% in 2022, down from 62% in 2021 and 64% in 2019 (the survey was not conducted in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic).
There was considerable variation in satisfaction across different stakeholder groups, ranging from 87% (amongst consumer/community representatives) to 34% (amongst businesses involved in energy pricing).
There was considerable variation in satisfaction across different stakeholder groups, ranging from 87% (amongst consumer/community representatives) to 34% (amongst businesses involved in energy pricing).
Some of the key strengths included:
- the commission’s strong leadership on keeping customers at the heart of its decision-making
- the work undertaken in strengthening protections for those experiencing vulnerability and/or family violence
- our collaborative approach to decision-making, and
- positive working relationships, driven by the ease of access to our people.
We also want to recognise areas where our stakeholders feel we can continue to make improvements by:
- clarifying determination methodologies and considering the business impacts of decisions
- increasing transparency regarding decision-making including the issuing of penalty notices for energy enforcement decisions and clarifying how stakeholder consultation has influenced our decisions
- focusing on longer-term outcomes that speed up the energy transition
- improving responsiveness to stakeholder feedback on the rollout of reforms to the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program, and
- providing support for innovation in industry, without compromising consumer protections.
Got a question?
Contact us for more information.