The clean energy transition must be a vehicle for First Nations justice, enduring cultural protection, and real economic participation — not a repeat of earlier patterns of dispossession. 

We support VicGrid’s intent to create a predictable, orderly approach to grid access. Despite these intentions, we feel the draft companion documents as released do not yet deliver the binding protections, resourcing or decision-making roles necessary for Traditional Owners to exercise meaningful consent over outcomes on Country.

In particular, the Grid Impact Assessment (GIA) and Access and Connections proposals must explicitly recognise Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for transmission corridors and Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) siting that materially affect cultural values and Country, and the Community Engagement and Social Value Guidelines must be elevated from guidance to enforceable eligibility criteria for grid access. 

In our submission, we have identified key issues, recommendations and drawn on international examples that actualise FPIC, co-design, meaningful engagement and benefit sharing. We have also provided in the Appendix a range of international examples drawing on embedding FPIC, co-design and benefit sharing. 

The Network’s core recommendations are: 

1. First Nations decision-making and consent — require FPIC for actions that materially affect cultural heritage, Country and First Nations economic interests and embed Traditional Owner decision-making and rights into VicGrid processes; 
2. Binding benefit-sharing and economic participation — require legally enforceable benefit-sharing arrangements, procurement targets, and long-term revenue streams for Traditional Owners; 
3. Cultural heritage and Country protections — statutory spatial exclusion zones, rigorous cultural heritage assessment protocols, and prohibitions on activities where consent is refused; 
4. Capacity — guaranteed, up-front capacity and technical support for Traditional Owner groups to participate effectively; and 
5. Transparency, monitoring and enforcement — clear performance indicators, public reporting, and a fast, culturally appropriate dispute resolution mechanism. 

Absent explicit legal status for FPIC, binding benefit-sharing and adequate resourcing, the Victorian Access Regime risks repeating historic patterns of extractive development that exclude First Nations people. 

Read our submission 

By sidelining First Nations outcomes, the Nelson Review of the National Electricity Market risks undermining both Australia’s renewable energy goals and the equitable transition that First Nations communities expect.

The Network supports recognising First Nations outcomes through optional attributes on renewable electricity Guarantee of Origin certificates. However, Free, Prior and Informed Consent must be embedded as a core policy principle and a condition of access to government programs.

By sidelining First Nations outcomes, the Nelson Review of the National Electricity Market (NEM) risks undermining both Australia’s renewable energy goals and the equitable transition that First Nations communities expect. 

The Network calls on the Review Panel and governments to ensure that at a minimum, First Nations merit criteria remain embedded in the Electricity Services Entry Mechanism (ESEM), building on the Capacity Investment Scheme's (CIS’s) strengths and aligned with the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. 

Our recommendations

To align the Nelson Review with Australia’s commitments, including through the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy, and international best practice, the Network recommends: 

1. Amend Recommendation 8 to require First Nations and social licence merit criteria within ESEM auctions, not just as preconditions. 
2. At a minimum, establish nationally consistent preconditions, co-designed with First Nations, to prevent a race to the bottom. 
3. Develop a transparent governance and monitoring framework, such as a Developer Rating Scheme, to ensure social and First Nations commitments are tracked and enforced. 
4. Ensure the ESEM is explicitly aligned with the objectives of the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. 

Read our submission

The transition of Australia’s energy and economic system - built around clean energy - provides an opportunity (including through processes like the Economic Reform Roundtable) to design and deliver mutually beneficial outcomes by: 

• addressing inefficiencies in the prevailing system which entrench unnecessary costs, like First Nations economic exclusion and inequality, 
• improving productivity, equity and economic efficiency by investing in First Nations communities and First Nations outcomes, and 
• supporting First Nations clean energy leadership and projects. 

A forthcoming Network report highlights the commercial benefits for investors that comes with First Nations ownership and participation - bringing trust, long-term stability, improving project delivery, mitigating conflict and reputational risk, and providing numerous benefits to investors. 

Priority reforms, ideas and proposals 

Drawing from global precedents, especially the United States’Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Canadian fiscal innovations and Canadian government investment in First Nations communities, our proposals below directly support Treasury’s reform objectives. 

Efficient resource use and increased local economic activity 

Australia cannot realise the full value of its clean energy potential without investing in the inclusion and leadership of First Nations. This is an economic point. 

Local projects create durable jobs and unlock system benefits if properly supported. Unlocking local First Nations workforces and opportunities through targeted investment and inclusion will increase productivity - improvement in participation and skills will lead to large gains in household incomes and local economic activity. 

First Nations hold significant rights and interests over land and waters required for the industries of the future - areas that are rich in renewable energy resources, critical minerals, and regions that will support green metals extraction and production. Legal uncertainty, administrative, regulatory and agreement-making systems that are chronically underfunded entrenches high transaction costs. Properly embedding First Nations rights in law and process, and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) will reduce project delays, lower risk, and unlock underutilised economic resources. 

Economic exclusion is a cost to the Australian economy 

Inequality and exclusion are sources of national economic loss; inclusion is a driver of national productivity gains - inclusion of First Nations will accelerate capital flows and reduce risk. 

As Canadian First Nations economic leaders have argued, First Nations should be reframed not as a ‘cost centre’in the economy, but as key drivers of national productivity. Equity-enhancing policies, such as the merit criteria in the Capacity Investment Scheme and the community benefit principles in the Future Made in Australia Act are examples of emerging productivity enhancing policies which need to be strengthened and scaled throughout Australia’s policy and fiscal frameworks. 

Driving productivity and economic resilience - tax reform 

The Network proposes: 

• First Nations Clean Energy Tax Credit. Modelled on IRA Section 48 (Investment Tax Credit), this would provide a refundable or transferable tax credit for eligible clean energy projects with verified First Nations ownership or participation. 
• Clean Energy Bonus Tax Credits. Stackable with other tax credits and modelled on the IRA’s Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit and Energy Community Bonus, these should be available for projects that:
  • ○ serve remote / energy-insecure First Nations communities 
  • deliver measurable household energy savings 
  • embed First Nations outcomes in their design. 

Unlock investment 

The Network’s 2024-25 Pre-Budget Submission highlighted the need for a First Nations Clean Energy Investment Fund. Delivered by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and backed by government guarantees for First Nations equity investment in large-scale energy infrastructure (as successfully achieved in Canada), this package of initiatives would directly improve economic efficiency by treating First Nations as partners, co-investors and co-developers (rather than passive stakeholders or a barrier to overcome). 

Support inclusive and sustainable growth 

Modelled on the IRA’s Section 6417 (Direct Pay) and Canada’s Clean Energy Investment Tax Credit, permit tax-exempt First Nations organisations to receive cash equivalents of clean energy tax credits. And similarly, modelled on the IRA’s environmental justice goals, link tax access to energy justice outcomes, e.g. projects reducing diesel reliance and which improve energy affordability in First Nations communities. 

Conclusion 

Inequality and exclusion creates risk, which increases costs and reduces productivity. 

A policy and fiscal system which results in First Nations inclusion will deliver national productivity gains. The clean energy transition and associated economic transformation that necessarily accompanies the energy transition provides an historical opportunity to establish an inclusive economy which recognises the economic value of First Nations leadership, participation and benefit. 

Read our submission

First Nations rights, interests and priorities, including Free Prior and Informed Consent, must be incorporated as core components of the government’s Guarantee of Origin Scheme framework. 

The Guarantee of Origin (GO) Scheme must incorporate First Nations rights, interests and priorities, including FPIC, as core components of the GO Scheme’s framework. 

We note the current draft rules refer exclusively to native title, omitting any reference to statutory land rights schemes and comparable statutory land rights frameworks across Australia. This omission risks failing to recognise the full extent of First Nations legal interests in land, and should be correct to ensure the GO Scheme properly reflects the diversity of First Nations rights and interests. 

Recommendations 

Require evidence of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)

The GO legislative instruments should be amended to require that: 

• Registration of facility, production or delivery profiles include documented evidence that the project has obtained FPIC (as defined in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to which Australia is a signatory) from Traditional Owners or their representative bodies. 
• Self-declaration or minimal disclosure (as currently required in the draft legislative instruments) is not sufficient. 

Expand the Guarantee of Origin Certificate to include First Nations Attributes 

Certificates issued under the GO Scheme should reflect more than emissions and energy source. They should also certify: 

• Whether the project has obtained FPIC 
• Whether the project is subject to an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) or other agreement under a statutory land rights regime. 
• That cultural heritage protections are in place. 
• That First Nations ownership, benefit-sharing, or participation arrangements are in place. 
• The provenance of products, including whether production occurred on land or waters where Traditional Owners hold rights and whether those Traditional Owners have consented. 

These points would ensure the GO Scheme is a tool to ensure and verify First Nations outcomes and FPIC, and reflects the importance of product origin as a marker of ethical and lawful production. 

Public Transparency and Notification 

The GO Register should include details of whether a project is on native title land or land held pursuant to a statutory land rights scheme, and whether it is subject to an ILUA or other agreement with the Traditional Owners. 

Traditional Owners, Prescribed Bodies Corporation, Native Title Representative Bodies or statutory land rights bodies (as the case may be) should be notified when an application for a GO certificate is lodged. 

Cultural Heritage Protections 

Applicants should be required to demonstrate how they have identified, assessed, and planned to protect First Nations cultural heritage. This should be a mandatory element of profile registration and should be auditable. The Regulator should be empowered to consider the adequacy of cultural heritage protection measures, not just legal contraventions. 

Resourcing to enable First Nations Engagement 

The GO Scheme should include mechanisms to fund Prescribed Bodies Corporate and Traditional Owner groups to engage with project proponents and regulators. Without proper resourcing, meaningful consultation and participation cannot occur, and legal, reputational and social licence risks will remain high. 

Recognition of First Nations Verification Tools 

The GO Rules should recognise First Nations-developed tools like the Dhawura Ngilan Business and Investor Guides as valid frameworks for assessing cultural heritage protection and FPIC. 

Projects aligned with these tools should be prioritised or granted preferred status. 

Strengthened Suitability and Eligibility Criteria 

The GO Scheme should align with other emerging aligned policy schemes, such as that in the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), and include: 

• Pass/Fail Eligibility: Applicants must warrant they have not breached relevant First Nations protection laws, such as the Racial Description Act 1975 (Cth), the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth), and others. 
• First Nations Merit-Based Assessment Criteria: Applicants should have to provide clear evidence of early and culturally respectful engagement with Traditional Owners and First Nations communities. 

Read our submission

Energy policy in Queensland and Victoria has been in our sights, with two new submissions responding to government inquiries posted this week.

The proposed reforms represent a valuable opportunity to address energy inequality in Victoria—but that opportunity will be missed unless the specific needs of First Nations peoples are embedded at every stage. 

To fully realise the benefits of proposed changes to the Energy Retail Code of Practice, reforms must be implemented in partnership with First Nations communities.

The Energy Retail Code of Practice sets out the rules retailers must follow and the ongoing protection of gas and electricity customers. 

The Essential Services Commission (ESC) is proposing new rules requiring retailers to: 

• Review and adjust legacy plan prices annually. 
• Switch customers on legacy plans to cheaper options—without needing explicit consent—but with opt-out rights. 
• Ensure any conditional fees or discounts are fair and cost-reflective, even on older contracts. 

The proposed changes present important opportunities to improve energy outcomes for First Nations customers—particularly those experiencing financial hardship, digital exclusion, or energy insecurity. This includes culturally safe training for retailers, data collection to monitor outcomes for First Nations customers, and co-designed outreach and support services. In addition, these reforms present a unique opportunity to address the unique barriers faced by First Nations consumers—including language, literacy, trust in institutions, and access. 

Read our submission

The gaps in the current reforms are detailed below: 

Superficial Engagement with First Nations Consumers 

• Despite acknowledging that First Nations communities are disproportionately affected by digital exclusion, payment method limitations, and systemic hardship, no targeted initiatives or engagement strategies have been proposed. 
• There is no mention of engaging with First Nations consumers in the design or implementation of the reforms. 
• No culturally appropriate consultation models are suggested in the regulatory process. 
• There is no requirement for retailers to collect and report on outcomes for First Nations consumers. This hinders evidence-based reform and masks structural inequality. 

Vulnerability Frameworks Lack Cultural Safety 

• The Payment Difficulty Framework and family violence responses are not culturally informed or trauma-informed for First Nations people. 
• Retailer training and obligations make no mention of cultural competency, local context, or intergenerational trauma. 

Concessions Access Remains Burdensome 

• When promoting the concessions, ensure programs arousing an inclusive definition of payment difficulty which take into consideration barriers related to cultural stigma, institutional distrust, and limited service access, which disproportionately affect First Nations people. 
• Some First Nations consumers may lack access to phones, data or internet, have fluctuating incomes, or face ID documentation barriers, yet the proposed concessions reform assumes self-disclosure and self-navigation of eligibility processes. 
• There is no mention of streamlining or automating concession access for high-risk groups such as First Nations people. 

This is an Opportunity for Equity-Centred Reform 

We urge the Commission to move beyond acknowledgment to active inclusion by working in partnership with First Nations communities. These reforms must reflect the reality that energy is not just an economic issue—but a justice, health, and human rights issue for our communities. We recommend the below steps be undertaken to further protect First Nations consumers: 

Establish a First Nations Consumer Advisory Panel 

• Embed First Nations representation in ESC consultation processes. 
• Partner with First Nations communities to co-design energy hardship programs, communication materials, and outreach campaigns. 

Cultural Competency and Place-Based Training 

• Mandate First Nations cultural competency training for all energy retailer customer service and hardship staff. 
• Create a set of minimum standards for trauma-informed and culturally safe practices. 

Culturally Tailored Assistance and Communication 

• Develop First Nations-specific hardship assistance program. 
• Require retailers to communicate using preferred engagement protocols and media (e.g., local radio, posters at health clinics). 

Concession Access Reform 

• Introduce a universal concession pre-qualification process for Centrelink-connected customers. 
• Pilot automatic concession matching in partnership with Services Australia and Aboriginal Housing Victoria, targeting First Nations tenants and reducing the barriers to concessions. 
• Promote early triggers for support that do not rely on self-identification or written/phone contact alone — such as multiple missed bills, known postcode indicators of disadvantage, or referrals from trusted Aboriginal Organisations ie. their local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation. 

Disaggregated Reporting and Accountability 

• Disaggregate hardship and disconnection data by First Nations communities, where possible, to measure reform impact. The ESC could publish annual First Nations energy access and hardship reports to measure improvements. . 
• Track uptake of Utility Relief Grants, disconnections, complaints, and payment plans by First Nations status. 

This review presents a vital opportunity to embed equity in the regulation of essential energy services. We urge the Commission to centre the voices and needs of First Nations people in this process. Doing so is not only consistent with the objectives of the Getting to fair strategy, but essential to a just energy transition for all Victorians.