Telstra has pledged to buy back thousands of dollars in debt, improve credit checks, and discipline staff in an effort to rebuild trust with vulnerable customers who feel ripped off. The telco has embarked on changes to its sales practices amid an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and mounting public scrutiny. Senior executives made the announcement during an unexpected trip to Western Australia's far north, a region where some believe thousa...

Excellent news today the government announced a review of the forced bankruptcy threshold. The media links are below (ABC online and News Breakfast, SMH online) The announcement was in response to a letter (and lobbying) from the ABA, FCA, Consumer Action and Financial Rights after the release of Who is Making Australians Bankrupt. The threshold is currently $5K. In Who is Making Australians Bankrupt, we say it should be $50K. Industry seems to have already moved to $20K, so we will end up ...

The Stop the Debt Trap Alliance has released new data showing the scale of Australia's payday lending crisis. Key findings from the report include: The gross amount of payday loans undertaken in Australia will reach a staggering 1.7 billion by the end of 2019. More than 4.7 million individual payday loans were taken on by around 1.77 million households between April 2016 and July 2019, worth approximately $3.09 billion. Victoria is the state leading the country with the highest ...

On 31 January 2019, SA Power Networks submitted its revenue proposal to the AER. The proposal sets out the revenue SA Power Networks proposes to collect from its customers through distribution charges from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025. Draft Decision
On 8 October 2019 the AER released its draft decision on SA Power Networks' regulatory proposal for the 2020-25 regulatory control period, commencing 1 July 2020. The draft decision represents a key milestone in the determination of the a...

Source: Federal Government Media Release - Oct 3 2019 The Morrison Government is strengthening our commitment to supporting the financial counselling sector with the release of the Review of the Coordination and Funding for Financial Counselling Services across Australia.The Morrison Government is strengthening our commitment to supporting the financial counselling sector with the release of the Review of the Coordination and Funding for Financial Counselling Services across Australia. ...