Contents
The Agency Service Charter can be downloaded as a Word or PDF file or viewed below.
documentasset:Agency Service Charter
Foreword from the Chief Executive Officer
Our agency places a significant focus on providing a high level of service to everyone that deals with us. We are committed to ensuring our clients and stakeholders are actively engaged and have access to the information that they need to meet their obligations.
We value the consultative and collaborative relationships we have with our clients in the co-design and continuous improvement of our systems, processes and approaches. We want you to feel comfortable approaching us for our advice and respect the decisions that we make.
Strong relationships with our clients are necessary for our success. The nature of our schemes means that without strong engagement from our clients we will not be able to meet our obligations or achieve our purpose of accelerating carbon abatement for Australia.
We aim to be accessible, informative and decisive so that our clients are aware of their opportunities, meet their obligations and access the benefits to which they are entitled.
This charter is for everyone who deals with us through all of the schemes we administer. It sets out the standards of service clients and stakeholders can expect from us, how we conduct ourselves when dealing with you, and what we expect from you in return. It will help you to understand:
- who we are
- what you can expect from us
- your rights and obligations, and
- what you can do if you are not satisfied.
For our agency, feedback is vital to ensuring we remain agile and responsive to the expectations of our clients and stakeholders. I encourage you to use the channels available to ensure our services are meeting your needs.
David Parker
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Clean Energy Regulator
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Who we are
The Clean Energy Regulator is an independent statutory authority established under the
Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011 and operates as part of the Industry portfolio. The schemes we administer work together to accelerate carbon abatement for Australia. In particular, the Clean Energy Regulator has administrative responsibilities in relation to the
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Our values
We uphold the ethical values of the Australian Public Service and are committed to:
Accountability
We serve the needs of the Australian public through the Government in a professional, responsible and accountable manner.
Integrity
We deal with each other, with our customers and clients on the basis of trust, understanding and respect for differing views and interests. We undertake to perform our duties in a fair and open manner.
Professionalism
We perform our tasks and produce our outputs to the best of our ability with optimum use of resources and with a focus on continuously improving quality, productivity and professional development.
Responsiveness
We endeavour to provide high quality information and services to our clients within reasonable timeframes.
Empowerment
Our staff have the training, information and resources required to respond to client needs. We value initiative, cooperation, innovation, communication, flexibility in our work and the quality of work life within our organisation.
We strive to incorporate these values in all our dealings with our clients.
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What you can expect from us
Clients and stakeholders contact the Clean Energy Regulator for a diverse range of reasons. Our dedicated staff are well trained and ready to respond to client enquiries in a timely manner.
When liaising with you, we will:
- Identify ourselves.
- Provide clear, accurate and timely information.
- Be respectful to your needs.
- Acknowledge all correspondence.
- Inform you of your rights, obligations and entitlements.
- Inform you if we are not able to meet agreed timeframes and keep you updated.
- Collect, store, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with relevant Australian law.
- Refer you to a more appropriate organisation if your enquiry is outside of our remit.
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Our service standards
We are committed to providing a quality service to our clients. This commitment ensures that, as an agency, we provide our clients with meaningful outcomes within specific service delivery timeframes. We are committed to the continuous improvement of our services and our relationship with you. We take the commitments made in this service charter seriously, and will improve our performance in the services we provide to you.
We aim to:
- Provide you with accurate, consistent and clear information.
- Keep your information confidential in accordance with legal requirements.
- Encourage your feedback on our services and respect your right to make a complaint.
Providing you with accurate, consistent and clear information
We aim to provide accurate, consistent and clear information to help you understand your rights, entitlements and meet your obligations.
Our information ranges from publicly available details about how the law is applied, to guidance on how the law applies to our clients.
If you think our published information does not fully cover your circumstances, or you are unsure how it applies to you, please contact us.
The Clean Energy Regulator is unable to provide legal, technical or financial advice you may wish to seek independent advice from your consultant or advisor.
Keeping your information confidential
The
Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011 has secrecy provisions about using and disclosing your information. In administering the law, we collect information about you. We may get this information from you or from other parties. We will respect your privacy and keep your information confidential to the extent required by the law.
We can only look at, record, discuss or disclose information about you when it is a necessary part of our job or where the law requires that we do. The most common reasons for disclosing your information are to check your eligibility to participate in government programs or receive government benefits, to further the purposes of administering government programs, and for exercising law enforcement functions and powers.
If you contact us to discuss your affairs, you must have proof of your identity. This ensures that your personal information is given only to you, or to someone who can prove they are authorised to act on your behalf.
The Clean Energy Regulator’s
Privacy Policy contains information about the agency’s procedures for handling personal information including how a person can access their personal information held by the agency, and how to seek correction of such information. The
Privacy Policy also contains information about how to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles.
Encouraging your feedback on our services
Your feedback on our performance is valuable to us. It helps us to acknowledge areas where we are performing well and aids us in identifying and understanding emerging issues and trends. It also provides us information to continually improve our service.
You can provide feedback by
contacting us or one each page on our website under ‘was this page useful?’
What you can do if you are not satisfied
Your feedback on how we are meeting our service standards is important to us. If you find information that you believe is out of date or incorrect, we welcome your feedback and will rectify if required. If you follow our information and it turns out to be incorrect or misleading, and you make a mistake as a result, we will take that into account when determining what action, if any, we or you should take. You can provide feedback by
contacting us.
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How to contact us
Phone us
You can call our contact centre on
1300 553 542 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm AEST Monday to Thursday and between 10:30 am and 5:00 pm AEST on Friday.
We will endeavour to resolve most calls during the first contact. Calls made direct to other sections will be answered within the first minute or will be diverted to a voicemail service where you can opt to leave a message. We will endeavour to respond to voicemail messages within one business day.
The Clean Energy Regulator Contact Centre will endeavour to resolve 75% of calls during the first contact.
Where the Contact Centre is unable to resolve an enquiry we will:
- transfer and introduce you to the most appropriate business area, or
- request full details of your enquiry and our office will return your call within two business days of the original enquiry, or refer you to a more appropriate organisation if your enquiry is outside of our remit.
Email us
You can contact us at any time at
enquiries@cleanenergyregulator.gov.au. We also have a number of
specific email addresses you can use if you have an enquiry about a specific topic. We will acknowledge your email within two business days and endeavour to respond to you within five business days for most cases, or up to 20 business days for more complex enquiries. If this is the case, we will keep you informed of the progress of your enquiry.
Write to us
If you wish to send us a letter or a form our post address is:
GPO Box 621
Canberra ACT 2601
Where required, we will endeavour to provide a response to you within 20 business days of our office’s receipt of your correspondence, however in complex cases we may require more time to respond. If this is the case, we will keep you informed of the progress of your enquiry.
Forms will be processed in line with legislative requirements or as otherwise stated on the form.
Meet us in person
Requests to meet with representatives of the Clean Energy Regulator will be negotiated, selecting a time and location which is suitable to all parties.
When you meet with Clean Energy Regulator representatives you can expect to be:
- met within ten minutes of your meeting time
- provided with clear, accurate and timely information, and
- treated respectfully.
Contact us via the methods above for more information.
Visit our website
When you visit our website and use our online systems, we will endeavour to have them available 99.8% of the time (excluding scheduled maintenance).
We will endeavour to update our website content in a timely manner. We aim to keep you informed of any outages and enhancements.
Online feedback and requests
You can leave feedback about our website at the bottom of each page under ‘was this page useful?’ We will endeavour to acknowledge your online request within two business days of receipt of your enquiry provided contact information was provided. We will make every effort to respond to you within five business days of receipt of your enquiry, however in complex cases it may take up to 20 business days or more to respond. If this is the case, we will keep you informed of the progress of your enquiry.
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How you can help
You can help us to provide you with the best available service by:
- Checking whether the information you need is on our website, before you contact us.
- Keeping records required by the laws we administer.
- Getting any necessary professional services advice before you contact us, as we are unable to give you legal, technical or financial advice.
- Providing us with timely and accurate information when you deal with us, and not provide false or misleading information.
- Treating our staff with courtesy and respect.
- Advising us of your contact information, any previous reference numbers and if your contact details change.
- Making yourself aware of, and ensuring that you comply with, relevant legislative requirements.
- Providing feedback and comments on the quality of our services.
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Your rights and obligations
Allowing you access to your information
The
Freedom of Information Act 1982 gives you the right to have access to information about you in documents we hold. You can also get access to documents that help us make decisions, such as public rulings, our procedures and guidelines.
You can access the personal information that we hold about you, and you can ask us to correct the personal information we hold about you. For more information, see our complete
Privacy Policy – ‘access and correction’.
We may refuse to give you access to documents because they are exempt document. For example, where disclosure could reasonably be expected to prejudice an investigation or the proper administration of the law.
The cost of freedom of information requests is set by the law.
If you want to access any of our documents, you should contact us first. We can provide copies of some of the more commonly requested documents without the need for you to make a freedom of information request. For example, those listed on our
Information Publication Scheme.
More information on
Freedom of Information is available.
Privacy
We will respect your privacy and keep your information confidential to the extent required by the law.
If you are not satisfied with the way we have handled your privacy related complaint, the Privacy Commissioner may be able to help you. More information about the Privacy Commissioner is available on the
Privacy Commissioner website or you can phone 1300 363 992.
Making a complaint
We treat complaints seriously. If you come to us with a problem or complaint, we will aim to resolve quickly and fairly. Complaints also provide us with important feedback and help us to identify how we can improve our processes, systems and service.
If you have a complaint about our service, we recommend that you:
- In the first instance, try to resolve the issue with the staff member you have been dealing with or their supervisor. Be clear that you a not satisfied and state the outcome you are seeking.
- If you are not satisfied with the outcome you can:
- Call 1300 553 542 to explain your concerns and state that you would like to make a formal complaint.
- Submit a formal complaint via email, post a letter or send a fax. Contact information is available on our website.
When you make a complaint, include as much information as you can to help us understand your concerns and if required, investigate. For example, provide your full name, organisation, contact details, the specific details for your complaint and the outcome sought.
For more information see our
Complaints Handling Policy.
Right of follow up
If you are still unhappy with the outcome of your complaint about our service, or you feel that your complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily, there are avenues for review:
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