You might have bought something useless and don’t even know it. If you’ve purchased a used car or taken out a credit card or loan, you may have paid for some junk insurance or a rubbish warranty that...
The Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) welcomes the opportunity to comment on how to improve the quality, stability and sustainability of the Victorian training market. Read our full submis...
Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) welcomes the opportunity to provide input the Energy Market Reform Working Group's (EMRWG) paper, New products and services in the electricity market—consu...
Have you been disconnected from your electricity supply because you couldn’t afford to pay your bills? If so, we want to hear from you. We’re attempting to understand what households face when they c...
Consumer action has published the April edition of On the Wire, a quarterly publication featuring updates on national energy market reforms and regulatory processes. Edition 42 can be found here....
The Consumer Action Law Centre, COTA Victoria and Residents of Retirement Villages Victoria have made a joint submission to the Consumer Affairs Victoria review on the effectiveness of the Retirement...
Consumer Action has welcomed an announcement from Assistant Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham this morning about reforms designed to crack down on dubious marketing practices by tra...
Consumer Action has provided comment to the Senate Education and Employment Committees on the operation, regulation and funding of private vocational education and training (VET) providers in Australi...
Consumer Action has provided input to the Australian Energy Market Commission's 2015 Retail Competition Review Approach Paper. Effective competition is critical for energy consumers to the extent that...
Consumer Action has made a submission to Australian Energy Regulator about regulating innovative energy selling business models under the National Energy Retail Law. The issue of appropriate regulati...
Consumer Action and the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre have provided input to the Energy Networks Association's position paper, Towards a National Approach to Electricity Network Tariff Reform. O...
Consumer Action welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications about the performance and management of electricity network companie...
Consumer Action welcomes the opportunity to provide input into the approach to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) 2015 Retail Competition Review. Effective competition is critical for ener...
Overly complex contract terms and unfair fee structures can make the decision to move into retirement accommodation a gamble. Many Victorians move into purpose-built retirement villages or other retir...
Consumer Action has provided the following thoughts on the proposed revisions to the Communications Alliance Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Industry Code (DR C628:2014). Duplication bet...
Consumer Action has provided the following submission to the Department of Industry on the Energy Green Paper. Australia’s energy market is rapidly changing, with the unprecedented fall in energy d...
Consumer Action Law Centre and the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre welcomed the Coalition's announcement that it will ban energy retailers using the term "fixed" when referring to contracts with va...
Consumer advocates lament a lost opportunity to repair Australia’s broken energy retail market Energy retailers will continue increasing prices at their leisure after the Australian Energy Market Com...
Consumer Action has provided comment on the Discussion Paper on Key Recommendations arising from the Review of Enforcement Regimes under the National Energy Laws Final Report. Consumer Action provided...
Consumer Action, Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre and Victorian Council of Social Service have provided input into the AEMC's draft determination on distribution network pricing arrangements. Our o...
The Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) Annual Report for 2013/14 suggests energy retailers are failing to offer sufficient assistance to customers struggling with high bills. During the year,...
Consumer Action Law Centre has welcomed the State Government’s pre election energy statement, in particular the focus on making Victoria’s energy market easier to navigate, and keeping vulnerable memb...
Consumer Action and Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre have made a supplementary submission on the Australian Energy Market Commission's Draft Rule Determination: Retailer Price Variations in Market...
Consumer Action Law Centre has welcomed the Competition Policy Review Draft Report and its emphasis ‘on protecting competition and not competitors.’ But Consumer Action will be asking the review’s pan...
As in Consumer Action's previous submission to the consultation paper, we agree with the premise of the rule change that 'in practice it is difficult for customers to access their data from market par...
Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre (CUAC) and Consumer Action are pleased that the Australian Energy Market Commission – and other bodies, such as the Australian Energy Regulator, Energy Retailers Ass...
Consumer Action Law Centre has welcomed Victorian Labor’s new energy policy which would increase the powers the Essential Services Commission (ESC) and put consumers ‘front and centre’ of the Commissi...
Consumer Action Law Centre has welcomed the Victorian Government’s announcement that it has directed the Essential Services Commission to conduct an investigation into the underlying causes of energy...
Consumer advocates and welfare agencies have submitted a joint submission to the Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW’s prepayment meter discussion paper. We support joint work by consumer groups, ombudsme...
An annual review of Australia’s energy markets suggest competition alone isn’t enough to keep the market running efficiently and to keep energy prices down. Research commissioned by the Australian Ene...
Smart Moves for a Smart Market: Simple steps to ensure consumer protections keep pace with innovation in a hi-tech energy market takes an in-depth look at the emerging demand-side energy market, inclu...
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is set to rubber stamp energy retailers’ ability to increase prices for consumers as often as they like. Energy retailers would have been banned from inc...
As winter energy bills begin landing in letterboxes, a new report from the Consumer Action has identified fundamental flaws in the way energy retailers identify and assist struggling customers. Proble...
Consumer Action has made a submission on the Competition Policy Review Issues Paper. The key points and recommendations are outlined below: While effective competition generally ensures market outc...
Consumer Action, the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre and the Victorian Council of Social Service welcome the opportunity to comment on the May 2014 Preliminary Advice from the Independent Reviewer....
Consumer Action recognises the great potential for advanced metering to enhance consumers' understanding of their own energy consumption, and acknowledges that it can be an important link for consumer...
Consumer Action welcomes the opportunity to provide input into the AEMC's rule change proposal to expand competition in metering and related services. Consumer Action recognises the great potential f...
The Consumer Action Law Centre welcomes the opportunity to provide input into the Federal Government’s review of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET). Consumer Action is an independent, not-for-...
Consumer Action welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Draft Consultation Paper – Reforms to Retail Regulation 2014 and Planned Outages. We strongly support the Minister’s proposal to increase th...
This submission is the result of a collaboration between the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre, the Victorian Council of Social Services, Consumer Action Law Centre and the Financial and Consumer Rig...
Consumer Action has provided comment on the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (the AEMC) 2014 Retail Competition Review Approach Paper. We welcome ongoing reviews of competition within retail mar...
Consumer Action has made a submission to the Standing Council on Energy (SCER) on the Final Report: Review of the Enforcement Regimes under the National Energy Laws Consumer Action supports many of t...
Consumer Action has made a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in response to its Statement of Issues on AGL Energy Limited (AGL) proposed acquisition of the busine...
Consumer Action supports the Commission undertaking this review and we agree that timely and accurate transfer processes can "support customer choice" and "confidence" in the competitive retail market...
New proposal to fix energy prices for length of contract Energy retailers would be banned from increasing a customer’s tariff mid contract under a proposal to be considered by the Australian Energy M...
Consumer Action’s 2011 submissions to the Code authorisation process recommended the ACCC refuse to authorise the applications, on the grounds that the proposal did not actually improve existing consu...
Consumer Action supports the AER's approach in attempting to identify a suitable outcome for consumers in an evolving and increasingly complex energy market. We have provided some comments to encourag...
A coalition of advocates has taken the opportunity to comment on SCER's National Smart Meter Consumer Protection and Safety Review Consultation Paper (Consultation Paper) and the National Energy Retai...