The Gas Governance (Insolvent Retailers) Regulations 2010 (GGIR) were passed under urgency in November 2010. The Gas Act 1992 requires that, after urgent regulations are made, those regulations must be assessed and consulted on, and a recommendation must go to the Minister on whether the regulations should be revoked, replaced, or amended.
This Statement of Proposal was published to meet that Gas Act requirement. The paper is in two parts. The first part assesses the GGIR Regulations and concludes that they do not provide a set of transition arrangements that would be suitable in all cases of retailer insolvency. The draft recommendation in the paper is therefore to allow the GGIR Regulations to expire.
The second part of the consultation paper begins to address a request by Minister Brownlee to Gas Industry Co to provide advice on the 'form and content of backstop regulations' to address retailer insolvency. The paper briefly canvasses the objectives and frameworks of insolvent retailer regulations in other jurisdictions. It seeks responses to a number of high-level questions, including whether retailer insolvency is an issue that warrants regulatory intervention and, if warranted, possible forms such intervention might take. Responses will be used to guide further work in this area.
Responses were invited on both parts of the consultation paper. Submissions closed on Friday, 15 April 2011. Responses after this date were not able to be considered.