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In late 2014, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) received a grant from the Ecstra Foundation to create Yarnin’ Money, a financial capability program wholly developed by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the 2014 grant round, Ecstra sought to fund projects that would: ‘work to improve the financial literacy and money…
Read More ICAN launches Yarnin’ Money Report
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Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 60,998 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last six months of 2018 (1 July 2018 to 31 December 2018). In this period, complaints about landline, mobile and internet services, decreased by 27.7 per cent compared to the same six month period in 2017. Publishing the Telecommunications…
Read More Phone and internet complaints down between July and December 2018
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CFA and several member organisations have made written submissions to the federal government’s review of the grocery industry unit pricing mandatory Code of Conduct administered by the ACCC. The Code requires most very large grocery stores and online grocery retailers to display on shelf labels, etc. the price per unit of measure of grocery products…
Read More CFA and members make submissions to review of federal unit pricing regulation
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Insurers should accept the challenge of embedding a strong culture of fairness, honesty and transparency, or risk being forced out of business, according to an insurance compliance leader. Lynelle Briggs AO, Independent Chair of the General Insurance Code Governance Committee (the Committee), said there was evidence that some subscribers were not taking the Code and…
Read More Deliver strong and fair culture or risk business, insurers told
The Federal Government has committed to a process to fund a superannuation consumer advocate in Tuesday night’s budget. Independent consumer groups CHOICE and the Superannuation Consumers Centre (SCC) have welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement to scope the permanent funding of a Superannuation Consumer Advocate but say this needs to be backed by a substantial long-term…
Read More Budget backing for superannuation consumer advocate
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Reliable, affordable, renewable energy has helped many Australians take back control of their power prices. Yet as the solar industry booms, consumer protection has not kept up. More needs to be done to protect householders, according to a comprehensive report released by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action). Sunny Side Up: Strengthening the consumer protection…
Read More Sunny Side Up: Strengthening the consumer protection regime for solar panels in Victoria
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most transformative forces of our time, and is bound to alter the fabric of society. Over the last decade, major advances were realised due to the availability of vast amounts of digital data, powerful computing architectures, and advances in AI techniques such as machine learning. To ensure that…
Read More Artificial Intelligence and ethics
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Labor will make the Australian economy fairer and more competitive by raising the penalties for competition and consumer breaches to levels in line with other advanced nations. In recent years, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has brought cases against a veritable who’s who of major firms. Telstra was fined for misleading consumers about…
Read More Labor proposes to increase penalties for competition law contraventions if elected
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The Morrison Government has issued a safety warning notice to the public regarding risks associated with button batteries. Button batteries, also known as coin cell batteries, are flat, round, single cell batteries, used in a broad range of personal and household products such as children’s toys, hearing aids, watches, remote controls, digital thermometers and bathroom…
Read More Coalition issues button battery safety alert
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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have released a series of publications and an online tool allowing policyholders – for the first time – to compare life insurers’ performance in handling claims and disputes. The joint project is the culmination of more than two years of work…
Read More APRA and ASIC publish world-leading life insurance data
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Almost 38 million life insurance cover types were in force at 30 June 2018, according to the inaugural Annual Industry Data and Compliance Report compiled by the Life Code Compliance Committee (LCCC). The report is based on information provided by subscribers to the Life Insurance Code of Practice). Death (41%) and total and permanent disability…
Read More Life insurance code monitoring body delivers report on Australian life insurance industry compliance
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A new report released today by Australia’s peak communications consumer organisation, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), shows that telco customer service representatives are being encouraged to focus on selling over service, potentially exposing consumers to questionable selling practices. The Spotlight on Telco Commissions and Targets exploratory report was commissioned following a number of…
Read More ACCAN shines a light on telco sales practices in new report
