Chair Kate Symons to leave the Essential Services Commission
24 May 2024
After eight years at the Essential Services Commission, I have decided it is time to hand over the baton and not to serve another term as Chair of the Essential Services Commission. I will conclude my current term on 30 June 2024.
It has been an absolute privilege and an honour to serve Victorian consumers as Chair for the last five years and as a commissioner since 2016.
During my tenure, I have seen the commission evolve from its traditional roots as a pricing regulator of monopoly services to a stronger consumer-focussed regulator with a much broader and more complex range of functions including a strong compliance and enforcement focus.
Putting consumers at the heart of everything we do at the commission has been a personal key focus.
I am particularly proud of the collaborative, community and consumer-centred approach to co-designing our inaugural Getting to Fair strategy which heralded a fundamental shift to the intersection between economic regulation and consumers experiencing vulnerability.
In addition, I was pleased to be able to play a role in supporting the community during the COVID pandemic by ensuring that Victorian consumers, particularly those experiencing vulnerability, maintained supply to essential services.
The implementation of nation-leading consumer protections for energy consumers, including comprehensive assistance for consumers in payment difficulty and also bespoke protections for Victorian energy and water consumers experiencing family violence are milestones that I am proud to have contributed to. The commission’s Safety by Design partnership that I announced last week to build capability for change and reduce risks for consumers experiencing family violence is enduring work that I am confident will make a positive difference in the community in the near future.
My sincere thanks and appreciation to my fellow commissioners, Sitesh Bhojani and Rebecca Billings, our CEO Sarah Sheppard and to each and every member of executive and staff of the commission that I have worked alongside to collectively achieve many milestones over the last eight years – all of whom work tirelessly to promote the long term interests of Victorian consumers of essential services.
