I am a director in farrierswier's Sydney office.I have extensive experience advising governments, regulators and businesses on regulatory and policy issues across a wide range of industries, including electricity, gas, telecommunications, water, ports, rail, airports, waste and recycling. My expertise includes policy development, regulatory advice, developing regulatory and advocacy strategies, designing consumer and stakeholder engagement activities, facilitating workshops and forums, managing large multi-disciplinary projects and drafting regulatory instruments.

I am a part-time Commissioner at the Utilities Commission of the Northern Territory, the independent economic regulator for regulated industries in the Northern Territory, including electricity, water and ports. The Commission's responsibilities include licensing, compliance and enforcement, pricing, access regulation, the development of industry codes, conducting inquiries and providing advice to the Territory government. The Commission is governed by a Board of part-time Commissioners (the Utilities Commissioner and Associate Commissioners) who are responsible for statutory decision-making and all aspects of governance of the organisation.

I was a member of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Consumer Panel for the 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP). The Consumer Panel is established under the National Electricity Rules to represent the interests of consumers in the development of the ISP, including preparing public reports on key aspects of the ISP.

The AEMC is the independent rule maker for Australia’s electricity and gas markets and provides expert energy market advice to the Commonwealth, state and territory governments through the COAG Energy Council. I led the AEMC’s transmission and distribution networks branch and was responsible for overseeing the AEMC’s rule changes, reviews and advice on the regulation of electricity transmission and distribution networks and gas pipelines. I was a member of the AEMC's executive leadership team, reporting to the Chief Executive, and also led the AEMC's IT, telecommunications and knowledge management function from 2016-2018.I led all of the AEMC’s major reforms to electricity and gas network regulation between mid-2013 and early 2020, including AEMC’s annual reviews of the electricity network economic regulatory regime, the development of new regulatory regimes for stand-alone power systems and embedded networks, the introduction of “regulatory sandboxes”, the AEMC’s work program on distributed energy resources, the 2018-2019 review and rule changes on the economic regulation of covered gas pipelines, new rules for connecting embedded generators, reforms to the regulatory investment tests, and reviews of transmission and distribution reliability standards. From 2014 to 2016, I led the AEMC’s “power of choice” reform program, overseeing and coordinating nine rule change projects across multiple AEMC teams that led to new rules on a competitive roll-out of smart meters, cost-reflective distribution pricing, an enhanced demand management incentive scheme and improving customers’ access to energy consumption information. I also led a broad range of reforms across energy retail and wholesale markets. I was a key member of a number of COAG Energy Council and Energy Security Board working groups on major electricity and gas reform projects. I also regularly chaired large stakeholder forums and workshops and presented at numerous conferences.

I led the AEMC's retail team for six months. This role involved overseeing the AEMC's retail rule changes and reviews, leading engagement with consumer groups and ombudsmen and leading preparations for the AEMC's new retail market regulation and consumer protection responsibilities under the National Energy Customer Framework. I also led the AEMC's annual electricity price trends report, the review of retail electricity competition in NSW and the development of a consumer engagement blueprint for governments.

Director in the wholesale, environment and transmission team. I led major rule changes and reviews on electricity and gas wholesale market issues and reviews of the reliability standards for electricity networks.

I was part of the taskforce for the Independent review into the reliability and security of the National Electricity Market led by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel AO. I was a key adviser to Dr Finkel and the other panel members on a broad range of security, reliability, wholesale market, network regulation and planning and retail market issues. I led the review’s workstream on consumer issues, retail electricity markets and distributed energy resources, and drafted the final report’s chapter on “rewarding consumers”.

I was a Senior Associate in the competition and regulation team at DLA Phillips Fox (now DLA Piper), originally in Melbourne and then in Sydney. I advised a broad range of clients on competition and consumer law and energy, port and rail regulation. In the energy sector, my clients included TransGrid, AEMO, CitiPower, Powercor, Jemena, Basslink and APA Group. I advised on a wide range of regulatory issues including advice on issues under the National Electricity Rules, National Gas Rules, and the regulatory arrangements for the Victorian smart meter rollout, drafting submissions to regulators, and advising on and assisting with the drafting of regulatory proposals and access arrangements to the AER and ERA. I also drafted and negotiated numerous transmission connection agreements on behalf of AEMO and TransGrid with connecting generators. I advised Oakajee Port and Rail on port and rail regulation issues in relation to its proposed iron ore port and rail line. I also advised a broad range of clients on issues under the Competition and Consumer Act, and wrote articles and presented seminars on competition and consumer law.

The Ministry of Economic Development was a large department responsible to the Ministers of Economic Development, Energy, Commerce, Communications and Information Technology, Consumer Affairs and Tourism. I oversaw the Ministry’s main legislative reforms and other major legal projects, including significant reforms to telecommunications, energy, intellectual property and insolvency law. I worked closely with Ministers and appeared before numerous Parliamentary committees.I led the legal team on the comprehensive reform of New Zealand’s telecommunications legislation, including the operational separation of Telecom New Zealand into a network business (Chorus) and a retail business (Spark) and the introduction of local loop unbundling. I also advised on major amendments to the Commerce Act’s price control and energy networks regulatory regimes.

Chapman Tripp is one of the largest commercial law firms in New Zealand. I advised clients on a broad range of competition, regulation, consumer, contract and public law issues.I was a key adviser to Telecom New Zealand (now separated into Spark and Chorus) on telecommunications regulatory, contract and consumer law issues. I advised on a wide variety of regulatory issues related to the access and price control regime under the Telecommunications Act, including acting on access applications in relation to local interconnection, wholesale services and bitstream services. I drafted and negotiated most of Telecom’s interconnection and wholesale agreements with other carriers and internet service providers between 2000 and 2006. I also advised on competition and consumer law issues, including several major competition law cases.I also worked on a range of projects in the energy sector, including advising the government on arrangements to implement New Zealand’s International Energy Agency obligations to hold 90 days’ oil reserves.