A Compliance Framework for Home Energy Ratings Disclosure in NSW
Help Us to Build the Future
Thank you for contributing your time, knowledge, and expertise in this important engagement process.
As New South Wales explores the future implementation of a mandatory Home Energy Ratings Disclosure Scheme (the ‘NSW Disclosure Scheme’), there is an opportunity to design an assessor compliance framework that is practical, effective and fit for purpose, and which leverages the learnings from other similar-type schemes.
You have been identified as a key participant, as you bring a unique perspective based on your agency's legislative, policy or operational responsibilities, and/or your operational experience and expertise.
Your input to the engagement is essential to getting the assessor’s compliance and enforcement arrangements right.
We look forward to working with you throughout the engagement.
If you have any questions or concerns about the process, please contact me (eva@sdstrategies.com.au) or Celine Bachelet at NSW DCCEEW (Celine.Bachelet@dcceew.nsw.gov.au).
Eva Huaman Caos, Director, SD Strategies Australia
Why your participation matters
This engagement is not about validating a preferred model or assigning responsibilities before discussions or announcements have taken place.
Instead, it is designed to build trust, create a shared understanding of the issues, recognise the different responsibilities and perspectives across agencies, and identify pathways forward. This approach reflects the intent of the engagement:
To produce a clear picture of the current landscape, including areas of agreement, uncertainty and opportunity, that can inform future policy decisions.
Every participant brings a unique perspective based on their agency's legislative, policy or operational responsibilities, and/or operational experience and expertise. By participating fully throughout the process, you will help ensure that future decisions are informed by practical experience and policy considerations.
Policy context
The NSW Government is exploring the implementation of mandatory home energy ratings disclosure, a key commitment under the Consumer Energy Strategy.
The implementation of disclosure in NSW will be underpinned by the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) for existing homes. NatHERS for existing homes has established a robust accreditation framework for energy assessors operating under its scheme - meaning only accredited assessors are able to conduct home energy assessments.
However, NatHERS itself does not have formal statutory enforcement powers in relation to serious misconduct by the assessors accredited under its framework, and is limited to administrative actions, such as suspension or cancellation of accreditation.
This engagement will explore how the compliance and enforcement arrangements under NatHERS could be complemented to support the future NSW Disclosure Scheme. Achieving this will require collaboration across Commonwealth and State agencies, drawing on the expertise, experience and perspectives of everyone involved.
The Engagement Journey
This engagement has been designed as an open and honest collaborative process, not simply a series of workshops to steer the project towards a predetermined outcome.
Each stage builds on the last, allowing ideas to be stress-tested, refined and strengthened over time.
Your valuable contribution at every stage will help create a more comprehensive understanding of the current landscape, identify areas of agreement and divergence, and explore robust and practical options for the future.
About the Survey
The first step of this journey is a Regulatory Landscape Survey to establish a baseline understanding of perspectives, barriers, opportunities and challenges across the stakeholder agencies and participants.
The survey should take a maximum of 30 minutes to complete.
Your response will assist us to:
establish a baseline of current views across participating agencies
·identify areas of agreement and differing perspectives
help prioritise discussion topics and scenarios for the workshops
inform the design of interview questions and workshop activities
provide a benchmark against which changes in understanding and confidence can be measured over the course of the engagement.
There are no right or wrong answers.
We encourage you to respond openly and honestly, based on your own experience and your agency’s perspective.
Completing the Survey
The survey invitation has been sent to you as the nominated representative from the area of responsibility within your agency, which has direct relevance to this topic.
Security features of the survey platform that track individual IP addresses to prevent ‘gaming’ of surveys mean that responses to this survey can only be from a single laptop or device.
Please do not forward the invite and link to other people in your agency to complete parts of the survey.
Working Across Your Agency
We strongly encourage you to consult internally with relevant colleagues across your agency before collating information and completing the survey.
This may include colleagues with expertise in policy, compliance, regulation, legal, operational delivery, technology, data governance or other areas relevant to the NSW Disclosure Scheme.
Drawing on a range of internal perspectives will help ensure that responses reflect your agency’s collective experience, responsibilities and insights. This will, in turn, provide a stronger foundation for the interviews, workshops and future discussions.
Survey Guide
We have prepared a guide to assist participants in understanding the intent of each of the survey questions and the type of response (multiple-choice, checkboxes, free text etc).
You can download the Survey Guideline here