The following terms and conditions (the terms and conditions) apply to the Queensland Government's Drought Relief from Electricity Charges Scheme (the scheme). These terms and conditions should be read carefully before completing and signing the application form.

In these terms and conditions the 'applicant' means the person or persons named on the relevant electricity account applying for reimbursement under the scheme.

1. Application

Any application for a reimbursement (the application) must be submitted on a Drought Relief from Electricity Charges application form and must be sent to and processed by the State of Queensland acting through the Department of Energy and Public Works (the department) before reimbursement can be made (refer Clause 4 below).

The application must be completed in full and include a copy of the electricity bill and any other documentation necessary to support the application.

Any original documentation supplied will not be returned, and requests for copies to be returned may incur a fee.

2. Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for reimbursement the applicant must:

• be a customer with a retail entity other than Ergon Energy Queensland Pty Ltd
• be a farmer of a property that has been individually drought declared or is within a drought declared area
• have no water to pump or severely restricted access to water
• complete a Drought Relief from Electricity Charges application form.

For the purposes of this scheme, a declaration of drought must be made under a Queensland Government administrative process.

3. Relief available

The following conditions apply.

• Eligible customers may receive relief from supply charges for relevant electricity accounts applicable to the drought declaration period.
• Under this Scheme the supply charge components of a customer's electricity bill may be reimbursed by the department.
• Supply charge components include all of the following:
  • daily supply charge
  • metering charge
  • annual fixed charge (but excluding minimum demand charges).
• For all non-farm or irrigation tariffs, the customer is required to provide a statutory declaration to support their claim, stating that the connection is being used primarily for farm or irrigation purposes.
• If the connection has any other non-farm use, the approximate proportion of electricity normally used for pumping water for farm or irrigation use when not drought declared must be stated in the customer's statutory declaration.
• In order to establish the customer circumstances remain eligible (i.e. access to farm water), the department may ask customers to provide a new statutory declaration if their individual circumstances change.
• The statutory declaration must contain the customer’s relevant account number or numbers or the National Metering Identifier (NMI) or NMIs.
• Provided the drought declaration remains in place, the reimbursement applies to all supply charge components applicable to any account used for pumping water for farm or irrigation purposes.
• The reimbursement continues to apply until the drought declaration is revoked.
4. Claim and payment of reimbursement

Customers seeking relief under this scheme must apply within 6 months of the date on the electricity bill for which relief is sought.

Claims submitted prior to this period (i.e. date of bill is older than 6 months) will not be processed.

No maximum amount has been stated.

The reimbursement is for the supply charge component only of an electricity account (see Clause 3).

5. Termination date

The department reserves the right, at any time, to:

• change any or all of the terms and conditions (any changes will be notified on the department's website)

and/or

• contact applicants regarding information provided for the purposes of assessing their application or providing information about any changes to the operation of the scheme.
6. Authorisation

An officer of the department may verify the information provided in an application and obtain other information relevant to the operation of this scheme from the nominated electricity retailer and any relevant government department, including the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

By signing the application the applicant authorises the department to access personal and other information held by the nominated electricity retailer and any relevant government department to ensure the applicant is eligible for relief under this scheme.

7. Breach of relief conditions

Applicants may be required to repay any reimbursement made by the department under the scheme if any of these terms and conditions is found to have been breached by the applicant.

8. Liability

The applicant acknowledges and agrees that as far as the law permits:

• the department accepts no liability in respect to any claim, cause of action, loss or damage arising out of, or in relation to the payment of the reimbursement under the scheme.
• the applicant agrees that they will indemnify and keep indemnified the department from any claim or liability arising out of, or in relation to, the reimbursement that is the subject of this application to the extent that any claim or liability is not caused by the department's negligence or a breach by the department of any term or condition implied by law.
9. Payment

Preferred payment option of approved relief is through electronic funds transfer (EFT) directly to the applicant's bank account.

10. Privacy and Human rights notices

The Department of Energy and Public Works is collecting the information on this form in order to assess and verify an applicant's eligibility for reimbursement under this scheme. Some information may be given to other relevant government departments including the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the relevant electricity retailer for the purpose of administering the Scheme.

Your personal information will not be otherwise used or disclosed to any other parties without your consent, unless authorised or required by law. All information collected under the scheme is subject to the Information Privacy Act 2009.

For further information or enquiries regarding privacy or access to your information, contact Information Security by email information.security@epw.qld.gov.au or telephone (07) 3330 6270.

The department is committed to protecting the human rights of every individual applying for drought relief from electricity charges assistance under the Human Rights Act 2019.