The bill also makes important changes to ensure the Act's penalty regime is robust. It increases the maximum penalty for industry participants from $20,000 to $200,000 and addresses concerns about the low level of civil pecuniary penalty able to be currently issued by the Gas Rulings Panel. It also creates a new civil penalty instead of a criminal penalty for consumers who are not industry participants. This will align the penalty regimes for industry participants and non-industry participants, and it will be used to deter breaches of regulations by those consumers, which include some of the larger consumers of natural gas. That penalty, aligning with the other penalties, will be a maximum of $200,000 and will not apply to residential consumers.