We invest in capabilities that enable our agency to be agile and adapt to scheme or policy changes. This allows us to develop our people, processes and system capabilities in line with our strategic direction. Our administration needs to be robust and fair to underpin market confidence and participation.
We aim to be a practical, grounded, quick and commercially savvy regulator. We hold a wealth of data and information which is useful for enabling vibrant carbon markets to function well, and valuable for informing policy development. Our data must be accessible, useful and accepted as a source of truth.
The agency understands effective engagement and collaboration with all our stakeholders is key to building trust and improving scheme knowledge, participation and compliance. We work with industry experts, scheme participants, communities, including First Nations Australians, and across government agencies to continually improve our performance as a regulator.
Maintaining a capable, agile, and high performing workforce is critical to our success.
Culture
Our culture and values shape the way we interact and engage with one another, both within the CER and in our external interactions. They guide how we create a positive and supportive working environment, how we work with our scheme participants and stakeholders to build and maintain trusted relationships, and our approach in responding to challenges and opportunities in our environment. Every team member contributes to the values, principles and behaviours that are elements of our culture. We have distilled these into 4 cultural anchors that represent the ideals we strive for and form the way we work together:
- Delivering outcomes: Our people care about delivering agency objectives because our purpose matters.
- Trust and accountability: Our people trust each other because we are accountable for our actions.
- Role clarity: Our people know who does what because role clarity is vital for productive collaboration.
- Active development: Our people actively develop themselves and others because lifting capability makes a difference.
Further, CER employees operate within the framework of the Australian Public Service (APS) Values, which underpin a trusted, effective and high-performing public sector. These values — impartiality, commitment to service, accountability, respect, ethical conduct, and stewardship — are central to the APS's pro-integrity culture. As members of the APS, CER employees are expected to actively uphold and demonstrate these values in their work, ensuring that their actions reflect the integrity and professionalism that Australians expect from their public service.
Capability
The CER is undergoing a significant transformation in response to an expanding policy landscape, rapid technological advancement and modern ways of working. Tools such as automation, AI and data analytics are becoming increasingly embedded in all public sector operations, reshaping how services are delivered and how workforces are structured. While AI presents significant opportunities, we are actively contributing to cross-agency collaboration and scoping efforts to ensure AI is implemented ethically, effectively and with shared learning at its core.
The CER understands that to operate in this evolving environment we must leverage technology to upskill staff, re-deploy talent to more complex tasks and ensure we remain adaptive, inclusive, and resilient in the face of ongoing change.
The CER recognises the introduction of new schemes and technologies, without corresponding change management or training, can create capability gaps. As we become more reliant on digital systems to administer legislative requirements, we are prioritising investment in workforce development to ensure our people are not only equipped to use these systems but are empowered to innovate with them. To meet these changes, we are committed to building an engaged, skilled and future-ready digital workforce. The CER will undertake a review of our core learning programs to ensure a strong focus on robust and fit for purpose programs that support the changing needs of our workforce. We will engage with whole of government initiatives, such as the Australian Public Service Commission, ‘APS Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30' to attract, develop and retain the capabilities needed to deliver secure, connected and citizen-focused services.
The CER has a diverse and skilled workforce aligned with the APS Job Family Framework. This framework supports strategic workforce planning and helps ensure we have the right capabilities to deliver on our purpose.
We employ people across 14 APS job families, reflecting the breadth of expertise required to regulate and support Australia's clean energy transition. Notably, 43% of our employees work within the Compliance and Regulation job family, which plays a critical role in upholding integrity and ensuring adherence to legislative and regulatory requirements.
The remaining 57% of our workforce is distributed across numerous job families, including the following:
- Intelligence - specialists who analyse and interpret information to support strategic and operational decision-making.
- Monitoring and Audit - professionals who assess performance, compliance and risk to ensure transparency and accountability.
- Data and Research - experts who provide evidence-based insights through data analysis, research and evaluation.
- ICT and Digital Solutions - technologists who enable secure, modern and efficient digital services and infrastructure.
- Communications - communicators who engage stakeholders and the public to build trust and awareness of our work.
- Professional Services - legal advisors, financial analysts/accountants, HR professionals and corporate governance specialists who provide expert support across the agency, enabling sound decision-making, effective resource management and strong organisational performance.
This broad and diverse mix of professions enables the CER to deliver high-quality regulatory services, support innovation and maintain public confidence in Australia's clean energy systems.
In 2024-25, the CER took deliberate steps to strengthen internal capability by reducing reliance on outsourced services in key areas such as ICT, Digital Solutions and Data and Research. This approach aligns with the APS Strategic Commissioning Framework and reflects our commitment to growing and maintaining a skilled public service workforce.
The CER's use of contracted personnel remains modest in proportion to its total workforce, with most of these positions concentrated in technical or specialised ICT roles. These capabilities are essential to delivering the agency's digital transformation program and are particularly challenging to fill as APS roles due to strong market demand and competitive external employment conditions. However, we remain firmly committed to bring in internalising core functions wherever practicable, consistent with the principles of the APS Strategic Commissioning Framework. In 2025-26, the CER will focus on reducing external engagements within the ICT, Digital Solutions, and Finance job families with an expected resultant saving of $500,000.
Our performance
The CER is committed to transparency and accountability in the delivery of our regulatory functions on behalf of the Australian Government. We adhere to the Regulator Performance Guide (RMG 128), which outlines three best practice principles for Commonwealth regulators:
- Continuous improvement and building trust: regulators adopt a whole-of-system perspective, continuously improving their performance, capability and culture to build trust and confidence in Australia's regulatory settings.
- Risk based and data driven: regulators manage risks proportionately and maintain essential safeguards while minimising regulatory burden and leveraging data and digital technology to support those they regulate to comply and grow.
- Collaboration and engagement: regulators are transparent and responsive communicators, implementing regulations in a modern and collaborative way.
The agency's performance in achieving our purpose and meeting these best practice principles is measured through the agency's Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Framework. The framework provides a structure for monitoring, assessing and reporting on our performance.
Our KPI Framework is designed to demonstrate our performance in delivering external outcomes aligned with our purpose, objectives and planning priorities. It incorporates a balanced mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators to provide a comprehensive view of our effectiveness.
The framework ensures a clear line of sight between our planning and reporting activities, supporting transparency and accountability. Quantitative indicators are accompanied by defined performance targets, enabling consistent measurement over time. The KPI Framework is reviewed and refined with each planning cycle to reflect improvements in our reporting maturity and to respond to changes in our operating environment. In accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014, our performance information includes a diverse set of indicators to ensure a well-rounded assessment of our impact, as illustrated in the above graph.
Performance against these indicators is reported annually in the CER Annual Performance Statement, published as part of the CER Annual Report.
Types of performance measures for 2025-29
- Qualitative (6)
- Quantitative (10)
- Output (2)
- Efficiency (4)
- Effectiveness (10)
Expectations and intent
The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy issued the agency with a Statement of Expectations on 16 October 2024.
The statement outlines the Australian Government’s expectations for how the CER will achieve our regulatory objectives, carry out our regulatory functions and exercise our powers. This includes adopting a holistic approach across the regulatory lifecycle and embedding the best practice principles into regulatory functions. The statement also outlines expectations of the agency to be stewards of the carbon market, continue building trust and ensuring the integrity of our schemes, provide leadership and effective collaboration with our stakeholders, and ensure First Nations Australians have access to economic opportunities from the transition to net zero.
The CER issued a Statement of Intent in response.
The current Statements are available on the CER website.