Modernising the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Terms of Reference
Westjustice, Consumer Action Legal Centre (‘Consumer Action’), Financial Rights Legal Service(‘FRLS’), and Financial Counselling Australia (‘FCA’) provide legal casework and financial counselling services to consumers, particularly those experiencing disadvantage, in their disputes with telecommunications providers. We are providing a supplementary submission to our 11 September 2020 submission which can be read here.
Systemic issues and policy contribution work are core functions of all industry ombudsmen schemes, including the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). Not only are these roles comfortably within the scope of the TIO’s mandate, they are essential to the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the telecommunications sector, and contribute to the reduction of future complaints.
You can read Consumer Action’s other submissions on the systemic issues function of ombudsman schemes on our website, including:
Part 1 of this supplementary submission provides our general comments on the importance of these roles, and the relationship of these roles to the TIO’s mandate and The Treasury’s Benchmarks for Industry-Based Customer Dispute Resolution (‘Benchmarks’).
Part 2 of this supplementary submission sets out how the systemic issues and policy contribution sections of the Draft TOR improve the TIO’s capacity to meet the Benchmarks. The Draft TOR should be favoured over the Current TOR, and adopted.
Download the supplementary submission here, or read below:
Supplementary Submission to the TIO TOR review