Energy Safe Victoria is the state’s safety regulator for electricity, gas and pipelines. In 2025–26 it is implementing a new approach to stakeholder insights, targeting the public and the Victorian community to monitor its effectiveness as a regulator and measure its reputation.

To inform its public commitments and strategy, Energy Safe commissioned a stakeholder insights program to:

• Monitor perceptions of Energy Safe’s effectiveness as a regulator and measure reputation.
• Increase Awareness, trust and confidence in Energy Safe.
• Increase community understanding of energy safety risks at home.

An iterative seven-stage triangulated program:

• Project Establishment & Survey Logic – agreeing timelines, comparability, risk management and question areas.
• Qualitative Research – 5 focus groups with a topline debrief to inform question development.
• Questionnaire Development – collaborative, engaging and aligned to objectives.
• Testing – cognitive and pilot testing to optimise the questionnaire.
• Fieldwork – n=2,000 15-minute online surveys.
• Integrated Analysis & Reporting – rigorous cleaning, dashboards and reports.
• Workshops & Presentations – embedding insights and supporting strategy.

The study will give Energy Safe Victoria a robust baseline of community awareness, trust and confidence to monitor its effectiveness and reputation as a regulator.

It will identify the engagement and communications strategies needed to increase awareness, trust and confidence and to improve understanding of energy safety risks at home.

Findings will be delivered with strategic recommendations and a workshop for the Energy Safe team.