Abstract:: Changing household consumption is one of the more difficult and contested areas of public policy making. This paper is specifically concerned with demand management and the variety of public policy approaches applied separately to residential water and electricity consumption. Using a comparative policy approach, a novel policy instrument typology is developed and used to review the current policy settings in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Thirty four discrete policy instruments are identified in electricity demand management and thirty six for water. The development and application of this policy typology enables a number of evidence-based observations on the range and scale of current policy instruments. The implications for policy analysis, integration, learning and targeting are discussed in context of the current and potential policy debates.