Invitations have been sent to 10,000 randomly selected customers and community members in the north-east Victoria region. The invitation has also been extend via North East Water's social media channels. Selection will be managed by independent research consultants, Insync.

From those who register their interest, a panel of 45 will be chosen to represent a broad cross-section of our community and customer base.

Insync will aim to ensure the panel has a diverse representation of people from across the North East Water service area. Not all customers that express their interest will be selected for the panel.

Anyone in your household and/or business over the age of 18 can register to be part of the forum.

North East Water employees, contractors and Board members from the last five years, elected officials, as well as people who work within the development community in North East Victoria, are not eligible to participate.

The forum will be asked to consider feedback from earlier customer and community engagement, weigh up different services, investments and trade-offs, and provide recommendations for the good of the entire community.

We will incorporate the deliberative forum’s recommendations to the maximum extent possible in our price submission, including providing reasons if we don’t adopt them. Our price submission will then be reviewed by the Essential Services Commission (ESC).

Your thoughts, opinions and ideas are all you need. You don’t need any special skills or knowledge to take part, you just need to be interested in shaping our future prices and services. Each session will be hosted by skilled facilitators from Insync who will make sure you are supported to contribute throughout the sessions. You don’t need to be a confident speaker or have any special knowledge about North East Water to make valuable contributions.

If you have any questions about the deliberative forum, please contact Jane Tyquin from Insync on 03 9909 9209 or via email to jtyquin@insync.com.au