Consultation on cost recovery arrangements

The Offshore Infrastructure Regulator (OIR) is fully cost recovered through a combination of fees and levies collected from regulated entities. A fully cost recovered regime allows the OIR to deliver high quality regulatory services and ensure the costs of administering the regulatory framework are borne by industry.

The compliance levies and fees that OIR collects are reflected in the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021, the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure (Regulatory Levies) Act 2021 and associated regulations. 

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) released an Exposure Draft of the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Amendment Regulations 2024, which includes a range of application types to be administered by the OIR, requiring cost recovery through fees. 

The mechanism for setting levies and fees is through the preparation of a Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (CRIS) that meets the requirements of the Australian Government Cost Recovery Guidelines. 

To support DCCEEW in establishing the cost recovery mechanisms for the WHS authorisations to be administered by the OIR, we have prepared a Draft CRIS for consultation with stakeholders.

The revised CRIS has been restructured to separately describe cost recovery arrangements for the OIR, independently from DCCEEW and the Registrar and outline assessment fees for WHS application types under the applied WHS provisions. No other changes to OIR regulatory charging activities have been made. 

Licence holders and other industry participants are invited to provide feedback on the revised CRIS. 

Please provide written feedback to offshorerenewables@oir.gov.au by 28 June 2024.