Debt - Consumer Action Law Centre

ATO debt failures a perverse problem that can be changed now

Consumer Action Law Centre says its Price of Survival report spotlighting the demoralising ways the ATO deals with people’s tax debts shows the need for immediate change. Almost 1,500 Victorians ca...

Joint Consumer Submission: Scam Prevention Framework codes and rules

This is a joint submission, co-drafted by Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action), CHOICE and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), and made on behalf of: Organisation...

Wrong direction: Australians robbed of $2.2 billion in 2025 by scam-crime

More than $10 billion has been stolen in scams from Australians since 2020 -a deeply troubling statistic as victims continue to carry 95% of the losses, and 30% or more of victims don’t report their l...

Energy Consumer Reforms ‘Transformational’ say Consumer Advocates

Major reforms in the consumer energy market announced today by the Essential Services Commission (ESC) will have a positive and transformational impact for thousands of Victorians say consumer advocat...

REPORT: Energy debt higher than ever as low-income households priced out of essential service

Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Stephanie Tonkin says the Centre’s new report Energy Assistance Report 4th Edition: Keeping the Lights On published today, highlights that thousands of Victorians are st...

Senate Inquiry: Cost-of-Living crisis highlights the need for supermarket prices to be fair and transparent say consumer advocates

Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Stephanie Tonkin and Acting Director of Financial Counselling Practice Claire Tacon will be giving evidence today at the Senate Select Committee hearing into supermarket...

Senate Select Committee on supermarket prices

Our submission to the Senate Select Committee on supermarket prices aims to provide insight into the broader context and impacts of rising costs of living for Australians. Rising costs and poor ind...

Now is the time to make positive reforms to bankruptcy laws say consumer advocates

Consumer advocates around Australia have welcomed moves by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC MP to reform bankruptcy laws. Last month, consumer advocates attended a Ministerial Roundtable on Perso...

Government’s commitment to regulate buy now pay later products welcomed

Key consumer and community groups are welcoming comments by the new Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, that the Government will move to regulate buy now pay later (BNPL). Minister Jone...

US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Inquiry into Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) Providers

While there have always been various forms of instalment credit products in the marketplace, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a uniquely Australian invention, that has now been exported around the world....

US Government urged NOT to follow Australia’s lead with self-regulation of buy now pay later products

Australian consumer groups have warned the USA’s chief consumer regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), about major flaws in the self-regulation of buy now pay later (BNPL) product...

Options Paper: Possible reforms to the bankruptcy system

This joint submission to the Attorney General's Department is made by Consumer Action and Financial Rights Legal Centre. It is staggering that the Government is proposing to roll back its own highl...

Our submission on Buy Now Pay Later to the UK Woolard Review

Our casework experience in Australia shows that buy now pay later (BNPL) debts are causing or exacerbating financial hardship in substantially the same manner as detailed in the Woolard Review. In...

Australian consumer groups warn UK Government against industry “self-regulation” of Buy Now Pay Later

Financial Counselling Australia and the Consumer Action Law Centre have shared Australia’s experience of weak consumer safeguards for Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), as part of the UK Government’s consultat...

Consumer groups applaud Federal Court ruling to uphold ASIC intervention in short-term credit market

Today’s Full Federal Court decision to dismiss an application by Cigno Pty Ltd (Cigno), seeking to quash the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) product intervention order to rei...

Court decision on Cigno lending model ‘extremely disappointing’

Today’s Federal Court decision that the lending model promoted by Cigno Pty Ltd did not breach the National Consumer Credit Protection Act (National Credit Act) is extremely disappointing, and consum...

ASIC must reject licence applications from predatory debt vultures

Consumer Action has welcomed the news that Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg MP has made new regulations requiring debt management firms – also known as ‘debt vultures’ – to be licenced to provide ser...

Consumer advocates ‘gobsmacked’ by majority Senate report on predatory lending laws

A newly released report by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee has recommended Parliament pass proposed laws that fall woefully short of what advocates say is needed to protect people from pred...

“Recipe for economic disaster”: Consumer groups slam Senate report on lending laws

Consumer groups condemn the majority’s recommendations of today’s Senate Inquiry Report, as the vote looms next week on the Government's disastrous proposal to axe safe lending laws. The repeal of...

People should not be living in poverty in Australia

“The Coronavirus Supplement was life changing for people who had long survived on the abhorrent amount Newstart (or JobSeeker) had been set at for years. For so long, they had to be great money manage...

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