Consumers' Federation of Australia

7 October , 2020

Reforms will leave Australians with more in retirement: Super Consumers Australia

Consumer advocacy group Super Consumers Australia welcomes the ‘Your Future, Your Super’ reforms announced in the Federal Budget tonight. “Overall, the government’s ‘Your Future, Your Super’ reforms create a better superannuation system for consumers and lift standards across the sector. These reforms will leave more people with more money in retirement,” says Xavier O’Halloran, Director…

5 October , 2020

CFA makes submission on development of the National Preventive Health Strategy

CFA’s submission on a consultation paper on the development of a National Preventive Health Strategy strongly supports the preparation and implementation of the Strategy. CFA agrees with the paper that: Our health system is focussed fundamentally on the treatment of illness and disease. There is a need to enhance the focus on prevention providing more…

30 September , 2020

Resilience tested, phone and internet complaints decrease in year of challenges

Complaints about phone and internet services decreased 4 per cent in the last financial year ending 30 June 2020. In this period, residential consumers and small businesses made 127,151 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, highlighted in the Annual Report 2019-20 published today. Read the TIO Annual Report 2019-20 here. Over the financial year complaints…

25 September , 2020

Consumer groups slam move to remove responsible lending laws

Removing credit protections will cause harm to people and the economy CHOICE, Consumer Action Law Centre, Financial Counselling Australia and Financial Rights Legal Centre have responded to the Government’s announcement that it will remove credit protections for borrowers saying right now what people need is more income, not more debt. Government’s proposed reforms will remove bank responsibility…

24 September , 2020

AFCA Datacube updated with latest complaint statistics

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has updated its online comparative reporting tool, the AFCA Datacube, to include information about all financial complaints lodged with it from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020. This allows historical comparison with complaints data from AFCA’s inception on 1 November 2018. The AFCA Datacube allows anyone to see how…

22 September , 2020

CFA welcomes start of a national education campaign to help grocery shoppers get better value for money

The consumer peak body, the Consumers’ Federation of Australia (CFA), strongly welcomes the start of a new national consumer education campaign aimed at increasing grocery shopper awareness and use of the unit prices provided on shelf labels and the internet by many grocery retailers. The campaign is being run by the national and state/territory consumer…

21 September , 2020

Consumers reminded to check and compare unit prices to save money

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused financial hardship for many Australians. One way to help you budget and save while grocery shopping, is using unit pricing. Unit pricing at grocery stores shows consumers not just the cost of a product, but what the value of that product is as a cost per standard unit of…

16 September , 2020

Consultation on the development of the National Preventative Health Strategy

In June 2019, the Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP announced that the Australian Government would develop a National Preventive Health Strategy. The Strategy aims to help Australians improve their health at all stages of life, through early intervention, better information, and targeting risk factors and the broader causes of health and wellbeing.…

14 September , 2020

SA takes the lead on unscrupulous payday lenders

South Australians will be better protected from unscrupulous payday lenders and those offering consumer leases, under draft legislation tabled in State Parliament on Friday. Attorney-General Vickie Chapman said there was a pressing need to act to protect South Australians from payday loan sharks as discussions on a nationwide approach have gone nowhere. Last year all…

14 September , 2020

CFA makes submission to Evaluation of Country of Origin Food Labelling

Country of origin labelling (CoOL) lets consumers know which country a product came from. The Federal Government developed a discussion paper to consider if labels are helping consumers make more informed choices and clarifying the origin claims that businesses can make. In summary, we recommend that: Requirements under the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information…

14 September , 2020

CFA makes a submission to NDIS consultation on support coordination

CFA is represented on the NDIS industry reference group and has made a submission to a consultation paper on support coordination. Support coordination is a type of funded intermediary that can assist NDIS participants access other services funded by the NDIS. This submission argues: There needs to be a stronger conceptual foundation for the role…

9 September , 2020

Cadbury, Coca Cola, Colgate. Which supermarket is cheapest for national brands?

Consumers’ Federation of Australia member CHOICE has priced national brand groceries at Coles, Woolwoths and Aldi. Read CHOICE’s article to see where to find products for the cheapest price and how to use unit pricing to check which pack size ofers the best value for money. Our price survey found that products from national brands…