TIME for CHANGE
[S]uper funds are blind to their own failures, with no targets, no monitoring, and no accountability…we’ve seen people subject to years of delay. These are people who’ve just lost a loved one—and they’re forced into a bureaucratic maze with no end in sight.
Read More ASIC report reinforces urgent need for mandatory super standards
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Preliminary research commissioned by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) raises alarm bells for policymakers and regulators. Findings point to widespread consumer harm and deep mistrust in the telecommunications industry. The polling, conducted as part of the first tranche of ACCAN’s consumer sentiment research, highlights troubling experiences of telco behaviour and unmet expectations. “Given…
Read More Research highlights consumer distrust in broken telco system
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Today (5 December) the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services will release its long-awaited report from the inquiry into the Financial Services Regulatory Framework in Relation to Financial Abuse, which commenced in April 2024. Members of the Economic Abuse Reference Group, a national network of over 50 community organisations that work with government…
Read More Community Advocates Welcome Government Report on Financial Abuse
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Consumer groups have welcomed the release of the Final Report of the Standing Committee on Economics’ Inquiry into Insurer’s responses to 2022 Major Floods. The groups have called on the insurance sector and the Insurance Council of Australia to accept all the recommendations and implement changes to their internal processes and the Code of Practice…
Read More Advocates Welcome Flood Inquiry Report, Urge Government to Act Now
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The Digital Platform Regulators Forum (DP-REG) has published a working paper on multimodal foundation models (MFMs) used in generative artificial intelligence (AI). The latest working paper “Examination of technology – Multimodal Foundation Models” examines MFMs – a type of generative AI that can process and output multiple data types, such as image, audio or video…
Read More Regulators Release Working Paper on an AI Generative Model
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The majority of Australia’s consumer regulators are missing the opportunity to act as an early warning system for dodgy businesses, according to new research from the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC). The Am I The Only One? report, released today, finds that most Australian consumer regulators do not publish regular complaints data in an accessible…
Read More Calls Continue for Consumer Regulators to Release Data
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The Consumer Policy Research Centre is hosting a webinar, Untapped power of unpublished data, to “unveil the findings of our latest research into the publication practices of consumer complaints data among Australian regulators”. The webinar is scheduled for September 24 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm AEST and you can register for the event here. Erin Turner,…
Read More CPRC Webinar: Untapped Power of Unpublished Data
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From the Chair of the Banking Code Compliance Committee: This year we issued three sanctions to three banks for serious and systemic breaches of the Code [relating to deceased estates]. This action underscores our commitment to hold banks accountable for the promises they make under the Code and to respond firmly where we find serious…
Read More BCCC Releases 2023-2024 Annual Report, Deceased Estates a Focus of Investigation
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ASIC has made 47 regulatory interventions to address greenwashing misconduct during the 15-month period up to 30 June 2024, including the commencement of two Federal Court proceedings and over $123,000 in infringement notice payments. The range of interventions, outlined in Report 791 ASIC’s interventions on greenwashing misconduct: 2023–2024 (REP 791), are aimed at stamping out misleading and…
Read More ASIC Continues to Focus on Greenwashing
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The Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) has just released a new research report Let me out – Subscription trap practices in Australia (published August 2024, written by Chandni Gupta, with thanks to CHOICE and Swetha Meenal Ananthapadmanaban) detailing harmful subscription trap practices in Australia and their affect on consumers. Additionally, the report explains best practices…
Read More New Report on Subscription Traps in Australia and Best Practices Going Forward
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CHOICE survey of 6000 consumers reveals many businesses are giving consumers the run-around A new survey of 6000 CHOICE supporters has found that almost 3 in 4 (73%) have experienced poor customer service from a business they dealt with in the preceding year, and 85% believed that customer service provided by businesses is getting worse. …
Read More Over 70% of Consumers Experience Poor Customer Service
Original Power
A new, first-of-its-kind First Nations-led research project has launched today, to improve energy security and consumer protections for customers accessing electricity services through pre-payment arrangements. Prepaid metering is mandated in many regional and remote Aboriginal communities and is associated with a high rate of disconnections and energy insecurity. Consumer protections for those customers vary across…
Read More First Nations-led Study on Lived Experience of Energy in Communities Launches
