News Archives - Page 8 of 56 - Consumers' Federation of Australia

7 March , 2024

Closing the Super Gender Balance Pay Gap

Paying super on government paid parental leave is a welcome first step towards closing the super gender balance gap.

5 March , 2024

‘From Surviving to Thriving’ ICAN’s Report on Holistic Financial Counselling

In 2020, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) set out to widen the scope of its financial counselling services by looking at how it could deliver a holistic financial counselling framework that could better meet the financial and well-being needs of its service users. Over the past three years, ICAN has been developing a practice framework for its financial counselling services that embeds elements of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Today ICAN has released the report: From surviving to thriving: Embedding a well-being framework into financial counselling practice that shares the learnings from this significant organisational undertaking.

4 March , 2024

Seeking CFA member to prepare joint consumer submissions to the Independent Review of the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has appointed a Review Panel to conduct an independent review of the 2020 General Insurance Code of Practice. As part of this, the ICA is providing resourcing to the Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA) for the preparation of joint consumer submissions and engagement with the review.
Please send expressions of interest to info@consumersfederation.org.au by c.o.b. Thursday 7 March 2024. If this date is difficult, please contact CFA Chair

28 February , 2024

No Say, No Knowledge, No Control: Personal Data in Australia

When was the last time you were certain that your data wasn’t being collected, shared, tracked or used in unfair business practices? A recently released joint research report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) ‘Singled Out: Consumer understanding – and misunderstanding – of data broking, data…

9 February , 2024

First Nations Advocates Welcome Federal Government’s ‘enduring resolution’ for Youpla Policyholders

First Nations financial counsellors, advocates and policyholders from the Save Sorry Business Coalition have welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement of an ‘enduring resolution’ for over 13,000 people harmed by Youpla and regulatory failures.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has briefed advocates that the government scheme will include people who were still making payments to ACBF/Youpla on or after 1 August 2015.

5 February , 2024

Industry Liability the Clear Path to Scam Reform

A coalition of advocacy groups, including Consumer Action Law Centre, CHOICE and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, have come out forcefully stating that customer reimbursement, paid for by industry through a customer’s own bank, must be at the centre of the Federal Government’s proposed new scam laws. The advocates say the new laws must be urgently implemented by the end of this year to stop the billions of dollars that are being lost by Australians every year to scammers.

31 January , 2024

FCA Announces Departure of CEO and New Appointments

After nearly 15 years in the role, Fiona Guthrie is stepping down as CEO of Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), the FCA board has announced.?

Fiona is leaving FCA to take up a new position as the CEO of Way Forward, a not-for-profit organisation that provides free assistance to people in financial hardship.

31 January , 2024

Consumer Advocates Call on Insurers to Act Now at Flood Insurance Inquiry

Consumer advocates call on insurers to act now at flood insurance inquiry

Urgent changes needed to improve claims handling process

A number of consumer advocacy groups – including CHOICE, Financial Rights Legal Centre, Consumer Action Law Centre, and Financial Counselling Australia – will be the first to appear today and tomorrow at a public hearing for the parliamentary inquiry into insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.

29 January , 2024

“Is it liveable?” CPRC and Tenants Victoria Rental Property Webinar

Consumer Policy Research Centre CEO Erin Turner will be facilitating the ‘Is it liveable?’ webinar with Tenants Victoria CEO Jennifer Beveridge on Wednesday February 7th at 4:00pm-4:30pm AEDT (GMT+11) to discuss the recent joint research project and report on the safety, cleanliness and liveability of rental properties. The webinar will feature discussion and analysis of…

25 January , 2024

CFA Supports Reforms to Merger Approvals

The Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA) and CHOICE have provided a submission to the newly newly established Competition Taskforce on merger approvals. Australia has many markets that are highly concentrated; supermarkets, airlines, banking, telecommunications, energy and insurance are all markets where a few dominant companies provide most Australians with essential products and services. Increasingly, we…

17 January , 2024

New Telco Code Proposal Fails to Deliver

The Communications Alliance, the peak industry body for the Australian communications sector, has released a proposed framework and review package for the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.

12 December , 2023

Global Consumer Alliance Urges Governments to Require Tech Companies to Protect People from Scams

9 out of 10 Australians also support strong penalties for digital platforms who fail to detect and prevent scams.

“Tech giants such as Facebook, Instagram and Google are failing to prevent scammers from using their platforms to target victims, causing enormous amounts of harm to consumers globally. In Australia, losses reported to Scamwatch from scams on social media have increased to over $66 million in 2023, an increase of more than 40% on the same time period in 2022,” says CHOICE Senior Campaigns and Policy Adviser, Alex Soderlund.