FCVic has submitted our response to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on compliance priorities for 2024-25. In it, we highlight key focus areas: financial hardship, domestic and family violence, and gambling harm. The submission emphasises the need for ongoing telco compliance monitoring, stronger protections for victim-survivors in the DSFV Standard, and enhanced regulation of gambling advertising and BetStop. FCVic urges ACMA to maintain these priorities to better protect vulnerable consumers.

FCVic has provided a submission to ACMA on telecommunications network outages, addressing three key consultations: emergency call services during outages, customer communications, and consumer complaints handling.

The submission advocates for a broader definition of “significant local outage” to include metropolitan areas, improved information sharing with emergency services, and stronger public communication obligations for telcos.

FCVic also calls for better consumer rights protections, including allowing complaints about network outages caused by natural disasters, refining definitions of financial hardship, and ensuring adequate staff training.

Additionally, the submission highlights concerns about battery backup for telco infrastructure and urges ACMA to support enhanced power restoration prioritisation for telecommunications assets.

FCVic welcomed the opportunity to join a coalition of consumer advocacy and financial counselling organisations to provide feedback on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) draft regulatory guide for low-cost credit contracts (LCCCs). The submission welcomes ASIC’s guidance on the new Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) legislative regime but calls for greater clarity and additional examples to help businesses and consumers navigate the changes.

Joint submission by:

• Financial Rights Legal Centre
• Mob Strong Debt Help
• Care ACT
• CHOICE
• Consumer Action Law Centre
• Consumer Credit Legal Service WA
• Economic Abuse Reference Group
• Financial Counselling Australia
• Financial Counselling NSW
• Financial Counselling Victoria
• Redfern Legal Centre

We welcome the opportunity to provide a submission to the Draft National Plan to End the Abuse and Mistreatment of Older People (Draft Plan).

This submission has been informed by the input of elder abuse specialist financial counsellors, through a consultation process with FCVic’s Elder Abuse Network. We acknowledge and give special thanks for their input and expertise which has helped to inform this submission.

A coalition of consumer advocacy and financial counselling organisations supports the regulation of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) products to prevent unaffordable debt. However, this joint submission raises concerns about the increased cap on default (late) fees in the Draft Regulations, which will disproportionately impact people on low incomes. The submission urges the government to retain the original $120 annual fee cap to better protect consumers in financial hardship.

This submission is made on behalf of:

• CHOICE
• Financial Rights Legal Centre
• Financial Counselling Australia
• Consumer Action Law Centre
• Consumer Credit Legal Service
• Redfern Legal Centre
• Economic Abuse Reference Group
• Financial Counselling Victoria
• Financial Counsellors’ Association of NSW Inc.
• Care ACT
• Mob Strong Debt Help