Consumers' Federation of Australia

18 June , 2021

Queens Birthday Honours for Consumer Advocates

The Consumers’ Federation of Australia is delighted to congratulate consumer advocates Susan Fraser and David Niven on being awarded Medals of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Sue Fraser leads Uniting’s (formerly Kildonan) Enterprise Partnerships team consulting to the banking, debt collection, utilities and telecommunications sectors, enabling positive financial outcomes for…

18 June , 2021

ACCC welcomes new law on motor vehicle service and repair information

The ACCC welcomes legislative changes which will increase competition and choice for consumers about where they have their cars serviced and repaired. These changes adopt recommendations from the ACCC’s new car retailing industry market study. This is an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) media release, originally published on 18th June, 2021. The Competition and Consumer Amendment…

16 June , 2021

Culturally and linguistically diverse community lose $22 million to scams in 2020, reports from Indigenous Australians up by 25 per cent

Last year scammers stole close to $34 million collectively from people who identified as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), people with disability, and Indigenous Australians. This is an Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) media release, originally published on 10th June, 2021. Figures from the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report released earlier this week shows losses to the…

16 June , 2021

Public health and consumer organisations call for food regulatory reform to put the health of Australians and New Zealanders first

CFA has joined with serval public health and consumer organisations in calling for the Australian Government to prioritise the health of Australians and New Zealanders as they consider reforms to redesign the food regulatory system for Australia and New Zealand. The joint statement says the current review of the system: Will set the foundation for…

7 June , 2021

Scammers capitalise on pandemic as Australians lose record $851 million to scams

Australians lost over $851 million to scams in 2020, a record amount, as scammers took advantage of the pandemic to con unsuspecting people, according to the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report released today. The report compiles data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, other government agencies and 10 banks and financial intermediaries, and is based on more than 444,000 reports.…

7 June , 2021

Adopting Trusted Overseas Product Safety Standards

The Morrison Government is supporting businesses to innovate, grow and minimise compliance costs while maintaining stringent safety standards for consumer products and related services. The Government in consultation with Consumer Ministers will look to develop amendments to the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and associated legislation which would allow the adoption of trusted overseas product safety…

4 June , 2021

Safety and electricity

Electricity is something we all use every day and take for granted. But according to Safe Work Australia risk of death or injury from electricity is strongly linked to where and how it is used. Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA) supports representatives to Standards Australia Technical Committees working on the development of electrical energy standards and ensuring the consumer…

4 June , 2021

World Environment Day – 5th June 2021

The United Nations encourages worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. Consumers’ Federation of Australia (CFA) has identified the environmental impact of services and products as a priority for participation on Standards Australia Technical Committees as part of the CFA Standards Project. CFA representatives are involved in standards development on Biodiversity and other environmental issues such as Environmental Management,…

3 June , 2021

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority proposes a new “consumer duty” – is it needed in Australia?

The UK’s financial services conduct regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), wants “higher level of consumer protection in retail financial markets, where firms are competing vigorously in the interests of consumers”. A key part of this is a new ‘Consumer Duty’. The consultation proposes: a new Consumer Principle that provides an overarching standard of conduct; and a set of Crosscutting Rules and four Outcomes that…

2 June , 2021

Code Compliance Committee releases Annual Data Verification Report 2019-20

The Customer Owned Banking Code Compliance Committee (the Committee) has released its ACS Verification Report 2019–20: Insights and Learnings. This Report is an addition to the summary data published in the Committee’s Annual Report in December 2020. It contains analysis of the self-reported data collected in the 2019–20 Annual Compliance Statement (ACS) and of the…

31 May , 2021

Draft new federal grocery unit pricing legislation released for comment

The federal government is seeking comments on an exposure draft of a new grocery unit pricing code to replace the current code which sunsets on 1 October 2021. The exposure draft, explanatory information, and the outcomes of the review that started in late 2018, are available here. The closing date for comments is Monday 14…

31 May , 2021

Unaisi Buli wins prestigious award

On May 19th, ICAN’s own Unaisi Buli was awarded the prestigious Jan Pentland Prize at the national Financial Counselling Australia Conference held in Darwin, in recognition of her outstanding work in financial counselling. For Unaisi, her work as a Financial Counsellor is a journey that began with seeing injustices happening to her people on a…