{"id":828662,"date":"2026-07-28T08:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828662\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:08:15","slug":"actewagl-better-offer-section-on-energy-bills-misleading-according-to-independent-act-mla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828662\/","title":{"rendered":"ActewAGL ‘better offer’ section on energy bills ‘misleading’, according to independent ACT MLA"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACT independent MLA Thomas Emerson has called for more transparency from energy provider ActewAGL after learning the company is not explicitly revealing the best deal customers could be on.<\/p>\n

Legislation states that energy providers must disclose at the top of each bill whether customers could be on a more affordable plan.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, ActewAGL Retail acting chief executive Megan Willcox told a budget estimates hearing that while they were informing customers of better plans, those were not always the best possible.<\/p>\n

“Every 90 days customers will receive on their bill if a better deal is available with their current retailer,” Ms Willcox said, in response to questioning from Mr Emerson.<\/p>\n

“Customers can contact their retailer and seek to achieve a better discount than that.”<\/p>\n

An ActewAGL spokesperson later clarified that some deals could only be made after discussion with an individual customer, after learning of their unique circumstances, and could not be offered on a bill.<\/p>\n

‘Haggling’ with the government<\/p>\n

According to the Better Bills Guideline under the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), energy retailers must inform customers whether or not they are on the lowest cost plan.<\/p>\n

Bills must include what Mr Emerson called a “better offer message”, showing if a better deal is available, and that message must appear on bills regularly.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Independent ACT MLA Thomas Emerson questioned Megan Wilcox during a budget estimates hearing. (ABC News: Dave Sciasci)<\/p>\n

Mr Emerson said the goal of the law was that customers should not have to call up retailers to seek a better deal by threatening to move to another energy retailer, but that was not what had eventuated.<\/p>\n

“Why does my ActewAGL bill say I’m on ‘the best plan’ they can offer me if I can get a better plan by threatening to jump ship to Origin?” Mr Emerson said.<\/p>\n

“The acting head of ActewAGL Retail yesterday admitted that if I call up and threaten to move to Origin Energy, actually they can offer me a better plan than that.<\/p>\n

“Or if I initiate the process to move to another provider, they’ll offer me a better discount.”<\/p>\n

He called the company’s approach “misleading”.<\/p>\n

“They shouldn’t also be telling me I’m on the best plan that they can offer me, if in fact they can offer me a better plan, if I’m willing to haggle with them,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It just seems really misleading.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

ActewAGL is required to provide information on better deals on energy bills. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

He called on the company to “be up front with customers”.<\/p>\n

“And let’s remember ActewAGL is 50 per cent owned by Icon Water, which is 100 per cent owned by the ACT government,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re having to kind of haggle with our own government-backed energy retailer to get a fair deal.<\/p>\n

“I was surprised that they just admitted, ‘Yeah, this is the thing that you can do, despite your plan saying you’re on the best plan already’.”<\/p>\n

Some plans only available via conversation with customer, ActewAGL says<\/p>\n

Asked if the wording used on its bills was misleading, a spokesperson for ActewAGL said its approach was in line with the law.<\/p>\n

“ActewAGL adheres to the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) Better Bills Guideline, Retail Pricing Information Guidelines, and the ACT Retail Electricity (Transparency and Comparability) Code Guideline,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“These are binding on all energy retailers.”<\/p>\n

The company said in the statement that all retailers must conduct a “deemed better offer check”, comparing a customer’s current plan against the retailer’s best generally available plan for that customer, based on their usage history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The AER defines a generally available plan as one that is available to any customer in the relevant distribution zone unless it is classified as a restricted plan,” the spokesperson said.\"Black<\/p>\n

ActewAGL says some deals can only be made with individuals in specific circumstances and cannot be identified on bills. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

They said that they were able to offer a plan to a customer that was “not generally available” following a conversation with that person “regarding their specific circumstances”.<\/p>\n

“The AER defines a restricted plan as one that is specifically targeted to an exclusive individual or group and tailored to the specific circumstances of that customer,” they said.<\/p>\n

“These plans are typically negotiated directly with the customer as they may require specific equipment (e.g. a battery or EV) or be available only to certain customers (e.g. concession card holders).<\/p>\n

“Including them in the better offer calculation when the customer may not be eligible, would be misleading.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT independent MLA Thomas Emerson has called for more transparency from energy provider ActewAGL after learning the company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2666,39851,401851,64,63,13246,99,2667,438,32445,19161,2572,11053,25213,2668,17571,1779,19303,19144],"class_list":["post-828662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-act","tag-act-government","tag-actewlagl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bills","tag-business","tag-canberra","tag-company","tag-costs","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-gas","tag-legislation","tag-local-stories","tag-payments","tag-plan","tag-provider","tag-utilities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}