Gas and Electricity (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2018

The Gas and Electricity (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2018 has been developed to replace the existing Electricity (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2015 and captures some of the provisions of the Gas Supply (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2012.

The proposed Regulation supports the Gas and Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act 2017 (the Act). The Act provides minimum consumer safety standards and requirements for both gas and electrical equipment and installations and provides a consistent compliance and enforcement regime for gas and electricity consumer safety. It aims to ensure the safe use of these goods by consumers in NSW and outlines standards for electrical, gasfitting and autogas work and industry maintenance of electrical and gas installations.

The proposed Regulation is required to provide the legislative support for the operation of the Act. Further, the Gas Supply (Consumer Safety) Regulation 2012 will be automatically repealed on 1 September 2018.

Options to amend the proposed Regulation are outlined in the Regulatory Impact Statement (access it from the Documents section below).

Key areas being considered for changes include:

• ensuring consistency between the gas and electricity regime in the following areas:
  • change of particulars for holders of a certification authority has been made consistent for gas and electricity with notification to be made within 21 days
  • restrictions on the sale or disposal of electrical articles and gas appliances to enable warnings to be attached on the safe use of appliances
  • confirming the persons that may disturb or interfere with a site of a serious electrical or gas accident
  • providing compensation for seized gas appliances similar to electrical articles
• bringing penalties for gas offences in line with electricity offences
• updating references to the mandatory Australian standards for gasfitting and autogas work
• extending the power to the Secretary to provide exemptions to cover electrical installation or class of electrical installation and
• updating fees for CPI increases and fees to be displayed as a fee unit.

NSW Fair Trading reviews all submissions, which may result in further amendments to the Regulation. If required, we may conduct further targeted consultation on any key issues identified. If you submitted comments, you will be notified when the Regulation is finalised.

The final Regulation will be published on the NSW legislation website.