Anna Collyer, Chair

Keynote address, AEMC's 20th anniversary

Terrace on the Domain, Sydney

Hello everyone. 

I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in which we meet this evening - the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation – and pay my respects to Elders past and present. 

As we mark 20 years of the AEMC’s stewardship of energy markets, it’s humbling to reflect on the tens of thousands of years that First Nations peoples have cared for and sustained this land. 

Earlier this year the Commission took an important step in our own reconciliation journey by embarking on our first Reconciliation Action Plan, which is represented by the artwork you can see here tonight. At its heart is a Yarning Circle – a symbol of open dialogue, collaboration and shared knowledge: themes that I want to talk more about this evening, as we work together to deliver an energy transition that serves all communities. 

But first, it is so wonderful to see this room filled with so many threads of the AEMC story - from our valued partners and stakeholders - to today’s staff and Commissioners, and those who came before them. This includes former Commissioners Liza Carver and Brian Spalding. Welcome back!

I am especially honoured to see my two predecessors here: John Tamblyn and John Pierce. 

John Tamblyn was our inaugural Chair. Unlike AEMO, that had evolved from NEMMCO, and the AER, which at that time sat within the ACCC, the AEMC truly started from scratch. John – along with Liza and one other Commissioner, Ian Woodward, began in an empty office on number 1 Margaret Street, with no staff, a five million dollar budget and a mountain of expectation. 

John tells me they were basically making it up as they went. But, as others have remarked, the challenges, and the Commission’s early leaders created a culture that empowered new staff to pitch in and confront the many unknowns ahead. 

In 2010 John Pierce took the reins and steered the AEMC for a decade, supported for much of it by Brian Spalding and Neville Henderson. The three of them had been central players in the formation of the NEM seven years earlier, before getting the band back together at the AEMC to guide the next chapter.

I have heard they were known – to some staff anyway – as the Three Wise Men, each with their own running list of words – like ensure and should - that were, under no circumstances, allowed in AEMC publications. I will ensure that I don’t use these this evening. 

I want to also acknowledge the very kind words – and ongoing support from Ministers Bowen and Koutsantonis. 

Tonight we celebrate 20 years of the Australian Energy Market Commission - two decades of thinking, learning, arguing, rule-making, advising, listening, adapting, evolving, and forging many important human connections that make it all possible. 

Anniversaries invite reflection. They’re moments to pause and look back on how far we’ve come. And peer forward, into an uncertain future, to ask where we want to go next. 

It’s a question that many in the broader energy sector are once again grappling with, as the transition ebbs and flows, both here and around the world. 

So, if you’ll indulge me for a few minutes, I’d like to take us on a brief Back to the Future style time-travel, to give pause, and remind us why this moment is so consequential. Not just for energy and emissions, but for the many diverse communities whose progress is tied to us all getting this right.

Where it all began

First, let’s set the scene. 

The year is 2005. 

John Howard is in his tenth year as Prime Minister. 

The Kyoto Protocol has just come into effect globally, but won’t be ratified in Australia for another two-years, heating up a debate over climate change that will help topple three future PMs – and possibly another leader of the Coalition. And I suspect, heavily influence the careers and lives of many in this room tonight. 

The digital age is dawning. There are no iPhones yet, but we do have iPods, and YouTube has just been launched. The cool kids are on MySpace, and Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl has become the first song to hit one-million digital downloads.

At this point, I need to confess that I am of a generation that when you say ’20 years ago’ I think you’re talking about the 1980s. So I’ll have to admit to not knowing what Hollaback Girl was, but I am assured it was a sensation. 

At the box office, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is number one. Pluto is still a planet, but not for much longer. Donald Trump is known as a brash reality TV star – so while some things change, some things stay the same.  

And here in Sydney, people are outraged that the median house price has gone beyond 500 thousand dollars. Imagine if you could buy a house in Sydney for 500 thousand dollars today!  

But the most significant creation of 2005 – more exciting than YouTube and arguably even Hollaback Girl- was, of course, the AEMC. 

It took its first steps when coal was still the undisputed king and renewable energy was a niche industry. Rooftop solar was a novelty and electricity largely flowed one way. 

We weren’t talking so much about decarbonisation back then.

The big task for the AEMC was continuing the development of new wholesale and retail markets, setting rules for transmission and distribution networks, as well as gas pipelines. And ironing out some of the complexities of what was – even then – an incredibly sophisticated national energy system. 

In hindsight, the creation of the NEM and the market bodies that followed was something of a miracle, knowing just how hard it is to get the states to agree to anything, much less about the governing of something as essential and foundational to society as energy. 

But a national regulatory regime made - and still makes – perfect sense. It unified diverse state systems into a clearer and more efficient framework, allowing consumers to benefit from more stable and competitive prices. 

For me, 2005 was a formative year for another reason. As the AEMC was born in Adelaide, I was in Melbourne, where almost 20 years ago to the day, I literally gave birth to my first child, a boy named Sacha. 

Seeing the world through his eyes made the future, and the impact I wanted to have on it, more personal. 

Where we’re going – The AEMC at 40

Now, let’s then travel forward to that future, 20 years from now.

It’s 2045 – the AEMC – and Sacha – are turning 40. Given the sleepless nights they’ve both given me, I fully expect invitations to both parties.

I hope to have followed one of my role models - the trailblazer Kerry Schott – and still be making a valuable contribution to the energy sector. 

I might even be featured in Vogue’s 2045 Women in Energy edition, which I plan to attend, of course, in a DeLorean. But, then again, it is 2045, and there’s probably no need to call out women working in energy when gender equity is simply a given – right across the economy. 

With apologies to this Sydney audience – as a life-long Hawthorn supporter, I want to make sure we have continued our track record of at least one – and preferably three or four – premierships every decade since the 1960s. Although we’re running out of time in the 2020s.

But trying to predict much else in 20 years’ time is risky, especially when we’re in the midst of an unprecedented transition that is running in parallel with a multi-trillion-dollar race to create Artificial Super Intelligence. 

What we do know is that the consequences of complacency would be deep and far-reaching, and there are countless dystopian films and books I thought about using here to paint the picture of a future that goes terribly wrong.

But, I remain, by default, an optimist. You kind of need to be to do this job. So instead, here’s the future we could have: 

We’re here in 2045 having made good on our ambition and reached net zero early, together. The world is still very different and disrupted, but energy regulation and collaboration have danced in step with innovation, unleashing its full potential to build resilience against the impact of climate change, while making tangible progress in the global effort to mitigate it.  

Social trust is high, costs are low, participation in the market is optional but effortless, and energy – to most people - is boring again. It’s no longer a nakedly partisan issue, rather a quiet background hum of progress. 

In this future, the transition didn’t just change the grid - it changed the rhythm of peoples’ lives.

The coordinated management of CER can give them real autonomy – especially seniors and those with health needs – helping them to stay independent for longer. 

Neighbourhoods have become resilience networks – not just recipients of emergency support but active hubs of recovery during weather-related power disruptions.  

Our streets and highways are cleaner and quieter due to readily accessible EV charging infrastructure. Vehicle-to-grid tech and smarter data arrangements help power not just freestanding homes, but apartment buildings, caravan parks, even the local sporting club. 

These advancements complement consumer-focused reforms in other sectors, where technology is being used not to pull us apart, but to reconnect communities at a human level. Something we need now more than ever.      

And they stand as proof of something bigger: that modern, democratic societies can do hard, ambitious things when values driven people work together on a common goal. 

This moment – what we can do now! 

So what can we learn from this time-travelling journey?

First, the past matters: The work done from 2005 laid the foundation for the system and organisation we have today. 

Second, that nothing about the future is inevitable. It’s not something that simply happens to us, it’s something we shape, for those we love, and for millions of others, whose lives are inextricably linked to the success or failure of this transition. 

Which brings me to my third point: It all comes down to what we do now! Everyone here in this room is not on the sidelines, but in the arena, doing really difficult things and navigating the uncertainty that comes with a transformation of this speed, scale and complexity.

And what has become clearer than ever is that we can only meet this moment through real and genuine constructive collaboration. 

The importance of energy to climate change means that, unlike many other sectors, people care deeply and argue fiercely about its course. The task before us is to harness all that passion and diversity of thought into practical future-focused reforms. 

Last year, the AEMC published its first strategic narrative that explores what we see as the enduring, big picture themes that we must collectively address over the next 20 years.

• Prioritising equity that underpins the social trust needed to facilitate the scale of change required.
• Improving the access and aggregation of data to support consumers in an increasingly decentralised system.
• Clarifying and coordinating the role of gas in the transition.
• Mobilising the labour and capital for a massive infrastructure build. One that must happen faster but should not come at the expense of environmental objectives.   
• And maintaining security and reliability throughout. Or, as I like to say, changing a plane’s engine mid-flight without losing altitude. 

All while never losing sight that we operate in an economy-wide transformation. One that increasingly requires us to speak to, and work with, those beyond the energy sector. 

Since becoming Chair I have sought to leverage the AEMC’s unique vantage point to cultivate that constructive collaboration.

You can see it in the diverse partnerships that shape our reviews - like our pricing review. 

In the work of the Reliability Panel, and the countless roundtables and working groups seeking shared solutions to shared challenges.   

And, of course, through the growing number of rule changes brought forward by industry, government, consumer groups and our fellow market bodies.     

We are so lucky to work alongside so many curious and dedicated minds who challenge our thinking and sharpen our decisions. 

So my message to you all this evening is simple: the AEMC will continue to foster the diverse and pragmatic partnerships capable of turning competing interests into common purpose. We will continue to cast the net wide to find and refine the ideas and pathways that will usher in a truly consumer-focused net zero energy system. 

Conclusion

I want to close with a quote I recently came across from the conservationist, Jane Goodall, that stayed with me. “Every day you live”, she said “you make an impact on the planet. You can’t help making an impact - the only choice you have is what sort of impact you make.”

Working in energy, right now, means having the chance to make an outsized impact - one that will be amplified through generations.

That can be daunting. Energy is political, polarizing and complex. Right now, it is fashionable again in some quarters to revert to cynicism. And we live and work in an era where algorithms and media skepticism give precedence to the loud voices of negativity and obstructionism.

But think back to the future – to 2045 – and what will matter most then: The work that we’re doing today. The moments we chose to stay in the arena when things got tough. The relationships we built to collectively make an  impact that is real and lasting. 

So thank you to everyone who has been on this shared journey. 

Thank you for doing difficult things. Thank you for your imagination. Thank you for the countless hours spent on submissions, debating frameworks, and working together to make sense of the ever-shifting alphabet soup that is the Australian energy market.

Thank you for showing up, day after day, to work on something that matters.

So here’s to twenty years of the AEMC - and to the next 20, with a conviction that we have a say in how that chapter ends. Have a wonderful night!