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...
Our Impact 2020-21: Improving laws, fighting shonky businesses, helping people
Today we are delighted to publish our Impact Report 2020-21 which highlights Consumer Action’s achievements over the past year. Despite the challenges of another year of working much of it from hom...
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...
Consumer issues in Victorian Aboriginal communities during 2020
This report has collated data, community intelligence, and case studies to answer the following questions: 1. What consumer, credit and debt issues are impacting Victorian Aboriginal communities?...
Report: Our response to the New Energy Tech Consumer Code
The New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NET Code) is a voluntary industry code of conduct, which sets practice standards for the sale of New Energy Technology (NET) products, systems, and services by retai...
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,...
‘Bills here, bills there’: Report on the lived experience of Victorian energy reform
This report is a deep dive into how energy reforms of recent years are impacting Victorians. Taking a qualitative approach, we draw on interviews and case studies to examine how recent reforms are hel...
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...
Consumer Issues in Victorian Aboriginal Communities: Integrated Practice Project Report 2020
‘Consumer issues in Victorian Aboriginal communities’ reports findings from Consumer Action Law Centre’s (Consumer Action) and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service’s (VALS) Integrated Practice proje...
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...
Energy Assistance Report: tracking how Victoria’s changing energy policies are impacting households in the state
Consumer Action's new landmark report shows that the Victorian Government's new policies are reducing energy disconnections, but energy companies are still falling short addressing consumer vulnerabil...
Sunny Side Up: Strengthening the consumer protection regime for solar panels in Victoria
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...
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...
Dirty Leads: consumer protection in online lead generation
Online marketing, lead generation and cold-calling have been scrutinised in a new report from Consumer Action Law Centre. The report, entitled Dirty Leads: consumer protection in online lead gener...
Denied – Levelling the playing field to make insurance fair
There is a big ‘fairness’ problem in insurance. People often make insurance claims when they are at a low ebb. They can face shocking outcomes and no appropriate recourse under current laws. This repo...
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...
Fringe dwellings – the vendor finance and rent-to-buy housing black market: Report
Vendor finance and rent-to-buy schemes promise the Australian dream of owning your own home—without a bank loan. However, these deals typically do not result in successful homeownership and in some...
