By popular request I will delve deeper into the current situation and the remedy we seek.

At present the accreditation of installers is vaguely raised in the renewable energy (electricity) regulations. Although It doesn’t provide details it simply states that the electrician needs to be accredited by the CEC to trade RECS. In fact the CEC is named 9 times in the regulations.

Going further, other government and non government departments request verification of CEC accreditation. Solar Vic, lodging paperwork to some distributors and any government tender. Basically if you’re not accredited by the CEC it would make no sense working in the solar industry and you will have no work as an installer. As a business or company you will need to contract all your work out.

So what rights do you have if your receive a letter from the CEC stating that you or your work resulted in demerit points being issued to you? 
currently you really don’t have any. Up until 2021 there was not even an internal review panel. The letters you would receive simply TOLD you of the outcome being points or suspension or cancellation. The action was already taken by the time your received the letter, if you received the letter as many did not.

So where to next? Call, email the CEC? Well again as many will testify there is no will or obligation to discuss your matter. The matter was decided and you have been processed.

In 2021 after many legal challenges the CEC decide to slap together an “independent review panel”  don’t hold your breath as it’s as much of a sham as the original process.

The previous head of the ACCC that has a focus on clients has absolutely no technical knowledge whatsoever and how independent can this panel be when all correspondence for the panel is filtered via the CEC themselves??

It’s more of a kangaroo court than a real review and you are also signing away your rights to take action further so it’s not only dodgy it’s outright deceptive.

Now that you have have established that the CEC are the accuser, judge, jury and executioner where do you go from here? remember the CEC are not officially a government regulator. Whilst they will reference the renewable energy regulations they also in the same breath say that they don’t need to abide by the regulations ?? Yes it’s hard to believe isn’t it?

The CEC state that you have signed their terms and conditions and that gives them the right to basically do as they please. They also claim to have a charter yet nobody has every seen it.

The federal ombudsman , the Australian administer appeals tribunal, Vcat, Ncat or similar say that they can’t assist you because the CEC are not a government regulator. The human rights charter “right to a fair trail” doesn’t apply to them in their current “ not a gov agency” format.

(We are working on having formal recognition on the CECs role as “acting as a federal government agency” which will give us many more rights of appeal)

So what are your rights? Would you accept this situation from any other government agency? 

The CER are unwilling to assist and refuse to disclose the agreements they have in place with the CEC. Even under a FOI request this is information that will need to be forced from them be the ombudsman.

So what will this petition achieve?

Until now the energy minister who is well informed of the situation has declined to intervene. This petition has already changed that as a meeting is scheduled.

The energy minister is accountable and we are demanding simple change.

the request is simple.
1. The Australian administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) is a simple process.

2. IF the CEC nominate the AAT as a body authorised to hear and decide a decision made by the CEC then a REAL independent government body exists

3. The CEC will no longer be able to bully us. It’s really that simple.