Before publishing a draft RORI, energy laws require the AER to seek concurrent expert opinions or evidence about the proposed RORI. To this end, on 24 November 2025, we published a report that has been prepared by the 2026 RORI review’s appointed Eligible Experts, with a particular focus on the key issues raised in the AER’s discussion paper.

The Eligible Experts have asked the AER to also publish a separate paper that has been prepared by one of the Eligible Experts, Professor Johnstone, which sets out in more detail some of the ideas referenced in the Eligible Experts’ report.

On Thursday 4 December 2025, the AER will host an online public forum to allow stakeholders to ask questions about the Eligible Experts' report before submissions close on 19 December 2025. 

The Eligible Experts will provide an overview of the key findings of their report and respond to any pre-submitted stakeholder questions at the public forum.

Stakeholders are invited to register their attendance for the public forum, and submit their written questions to the Eligible Experts to RateOfReturnaer [dot] gov [dot] au (RateOfReturn[at]aer[dot]gov[dot]au) by no later than 5pm (AEDT) on 1 December 2025.

Register

To enable stakeholders to make a consolidated submission on both the AER’s discussion paper and the Eligible Experts’ report, we have extended the submissions closing date until 5pm (AEDT) on 19 December 2025. 

Stakeholders’ submissions will inform the AER’s considerations for the draft 2026 RORI which we expect to publish in April 2026.