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With inefficient halogen lamps proposed to be phased out in Australia from late 2022, consumers will soon be looking for more certainty around performance claims for LED lamps.  Lighting accounts  for around 10% of electricity usage in households, and 18–40% of in commercial premises. The recently published Australian/NZ standard provides suppliers with a clear guidance on how to…

Read More More efficient lighting for consumers

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CFA has made a submission to the federal government on its draft new Grocery Unit Pricing Industry Code of Conduct. The submission disagrees strongly with the conclusions of the review of the current Code and with the proposed new Code’s provisions (which are identical to those of the current Code). It also argues that implementation…

Read More CFA and member organisations call for changes to proposed new federal Unit Pricing Code

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The Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC) has published its 2021-24 Strategic Plan and 2021-22 Business Plan. The  2021-24 Strategic Plan outlines the areas we will focus on to achieve our purpose for the period 2021–22 to 2023–24, including taking action to: improve the visibility of the BCCC enhance our intelligence sources and identify important issues expand our engagement with consumer stakeholders…

Read More BCCC publishes 2021-24 Strategic Plan and 2021-22 Business Plan

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The Standards Australia NEXTgen 2021-22 Program selects emerging industry and technical experts and provides them with an exciting opportunity to become involved in the national and international standardisation processes developing important standards of benefit to the Australian community.  The goal of the program is to support the future of standards development through investing in the next generation of…

Read More Get involved in the development of Australian standards with NEXTgen 2021-22 programs

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The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) today released five compliance and enforcement priorities for 2021-22, which include a major focus on protecting energy consumers. This is an Australian Energy Regulator (AER) media release, originally published on 23rd June, 2021. AER Chair Clare Savage said the AER will be monitoring retailers to ensure they identify residential consumers in…

Read More AER’s 2021-2022 compliance and enforcement priorities: Consumer protection

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A draft report by the Productivity Commission on a ‘right to repair’ outlines some measures governments could take to assist consumers to get their products repaired. Written submissions or brief comments must be made by Friday 23 July 2021. The Commission is also holding public hearings using a video and teleconferencing service, with the option…

Read More Draft Report on “Right to Repair” Released for Comment

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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…

Read More Queens Birthday Honours for Consumer Advocates

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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.…

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

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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…

Read More Adopting Trusted Overseas Product Safety Standards

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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…

Read More Safety and electricity