REPORT: Money Yarns, Stronger Futures

Consumer Action Law Centre and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service are thrilled to be jointly publishing our new report today Money Yarns, Stronger Futures. We would like to sincerely thank all...

REPORT: At the front line of the cost-of-living crisis

Interest rates have gone up thirteen times since May 2022. Inflation calculators, which look at purchasing power over time, show that since 2022 there has been a ten percent decrease in the purchasing...

ANALYSIS: Addressing and Preventing Legal Need

Consumer Action seeks to be a reflective, impact-driven organisation that can adjust and refine our services to meet legal need. We have done significant work to conduct evaluations of our existing se...

Energy Assistance Report 3rd Edition

Understanding the experience of Victorians dealing with energy hardship Access to affordable, reliable energy is one of the key challenges facing governments, the energy sector, and consumers in 20...

Our Policy and Campaign Priorities for 2022-23

Consumer Action has revealed its Policy and Campaign Priorities for 2022-23 with a refreshed focus on making the marketplace for consumers fairer. Director of Policy and Campaigns Tania Clarke said...

An evaluation of our Consumer Advice Service

The Consumer Advice Service (“CAS”or“the service”) is a free telephone legal advice service run by Consumer Action Law Centre(“Consumer Action”) for people living in Victoria. Lawyers delivering th...
Evaluation of Work Advice Line 2021 Report Cover

Evaluation of Consumer Action’s Worker Advice Service

The Worker Advice Service plays a central role in Consumer Action’s theory of change. The service aims to provide practical legal advice to Victorian community workers so that they in turn can provide...

Energy Assistance Report: Second Edition

This is Consumer Action Law Centre’s (Consumer Action) second Energy Assistance Report, following our previous report published in July 2019. The original report explored whether the introduction o...

Debt Management: Quantum Market Research

This report by Quantum Market Research on debt management firms is based on its AustraliaNOW weekly survey of attitudes and behaviour during COVID-19. A total of 2,005 people representative of age,...

Report: Regulator Watch

Consumer Action Law Centre has released its second edition of Regulator Watch: The enforcement performance of Australia’s consumer protection regulators. In 2013, Consumer Action published the first e...

The Debt Trap: How payday lending is costing Australians

The Debt Trap: How payday lending is costing Australians projected that the gross amount of payday loans undertaken in Australia will reach a staggering 1.7 billion by the end of 2019. It also found t...

Integrated Practice Project: 2019 Mid-Year Report

Recognising that we need to take a coordinated approach to addressing the civil needs of Victorian Aboriginal communities, Consumer Action Law Centre and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service teamed...

Who is making Australians bankrupt?

One of Australia’s largest debt collectors – Lion Finance (a subsidiary of ASX-listed Collection House Ltd) – turns to bankruptcy procedures to collect consumer debts far more often than its rivals, a...

A tough nut to crack

Trialling new partnerships and campaign methods to reach tough audiences Consumer advocates have long been concerned about the impact of payday loans on Australians. The industry spends millions of d...

Lemon-Aid

It is not always easy for people to obtain a refund or replacement when they purchase a faulty ‘lemon’ product. The current Australian consumer guarantee regime is not well equipped to deal with the u...

Knock it off

Download the full report here [PDF]   https://youtu.be/j43zE3HBoFk...

People who help people

'People who help people' provides practical steps consumer advocates and financial counsellors can take to demonstrate their impact and better influence public debate. Consumer advocates and financ...

Power Transformed

The rapid development of new technology in electricity supply is disrupting the traditional means of delivery of this essential service. As in other sectors, the consumer is at the heart of these chan...

Report: Smart Moves for a Smart Market

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...

Report: Problems with Payment

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...

Report: Barriers to Accessing Utility Relief Grants

Increasing electricity prices have had a significant impact on the consumers that contact Consumer Action for assistance—consumers experiencing debt issues and those with some of the lowest incomes in...

Report: The Hidden Cost of ‘Rent to Own’

We’ve all seen adverts promoting ‘Rent to Buy’ or ‘Rent to Own’ arrangements, where customers rent a product for a number of years before being given the option to buy or keep that product, but our la...

New Report: Regulator Watch

Consumer Action believes that a regulatory scheme with well-designed rules will be ineffective in addressing industry or market-wide problems if it can only be enforced by individual consumers taking...