Fair Go: Complaint Resolution for Digital Australia offers insights into challenges faced at a time of rapid changes to the digital environment. The Occasional Paper, written by John T.D. Wood, was commissioned by ACCAN in order to broaden and stimulate debate regarding external complaints resolution schemes.
The report's author, John T.D. Wood, is former Deputy Commonwealth Ombudsman and an expert in consumer affairs. The Paper is informed by discussions with 35 interviewees from industry, external dispute resolution (EDR) schemes, consumer and academic perspectives, as well as current and former ombudsmen, and also includes an extensive literature review.
This paper is not a review of the TIO scheme, nor is it a review of telecommunications regulation in Australia. Rather it is an attempt to revisit the background and development of internal and external complaint handling processes and systems and, in the context of the communications industry, suggest ways in which these processes could be better aligned to meet current and future consumer needs.
This paper does not constitute nor foreshadow ACCAN’s formal response to the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy discussion paper regarding Reform of the TIO scheme. Rather, it is a standalone document that we think offers a valuable contribution to the discussion.