Proposal to amend the Water Industry Standards

We are proposing to update our urban and rural Water Industry Standards to strengthen our reporting framework.

The proposed amendments include:

• introducing a new obligation on water businesses to report to us in a timely manner when they identify an actual or potential non-compliance in relation to the Water Industry Standards.  
• amending the current family violence clause to make it clear that a water business must take action to assist customers affected by family violence, in addition to having a family violence policy. 

These proposed amendments are part of a series of measures the commission will put in place to strengthen and provide consistency in how water businesses interpret their compliance obligations. 

The introduction of a formal reporting obligation will provide clarity to water businesses and lead to a consistent and timely approach to self-reporting across the sector. The commission will then be able to engage early with water businesses and other stakeholders to provide timely advice on appropriate treatment and response to emerging situations while maintaining a focus on better customer outcomes. 

The proposed amendments to the family violence clause better reflect how water businesses operationalise their current obligations as well as ensure the commission is able to monitor and assess water business compliance with the family violence customer protections.

Next steps

We sought submissions on the draft decision up until 20 December 2023 and have published these below. We will consider all stakeholder feedback and aim to release a final decision in February 2024. 

If you have questions about this work, you can email the commission at water@esc.vic.gov.au.

From early 2024, we will work with the water industry and other interested stakeholders to develop a guideline that supports water businesses to further operationalise these obligations, the classification of non-compliance including detail on when and how to report potential or actual non-compliance to the commission. 

Our draft decision proposed for the amendments to take effect from 1 March 2024.

We received eight submissions from water businesses, which were generally supportive of our proposed amendments. 

Stakeholder submissions commented on the following areas:

• the definition of 'material adverse impact'
• what would constitute a potential non-compliance
• the implementation period.