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The opinion piece below was written by ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett for the Canberra Times and Australian Community Media about draft anti-scams legislation. It was originally published on 27 August 2024.

Australians lost $2.7 billion to scams in 2023. These are scams we know about - the true losses are likely to be far greater.

The federal government has recently published draft scams prevention legislation (the Scams Prevention Framework), which will be put to the Parliament this year.

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ACCAN recently submitted to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, The Environment and Waters’ Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group (CEMAG).

ACCAN supports the CEMAG’s identification of the ‘right to repair’ as an activity the government should consider pursuing in the product design and use space.

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On 13 September 2024, ACCAN, the Consumer Action Law Centre, CHOICE and Super Consumers Australia welcomed an announcement from the Albanese Government that consultation on a draft bill - the proposed Scams Prevention Framework - will start today. The joint statement can be found below.

“I congratulate Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and the Albanese Government for pushing ahead with these scam reforms, and imposing tough obligations on industry to protect consumers, I want to thank him for this important work,” Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Stephanie Tonkin said.

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ACCAN recently submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) public inquiry on the access determinations for the voice interconnections services discussion paper.

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ACCAN recently submitted to the Department of Social Services’ consultation on the Review of Australia’s Disability Strategy. 

ACCAN notes that accessible communications and technology are central to the success of the Australian Disability Strategy (ADS).

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Changes to Triple Zero rules announced by Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland today are an important step to enhance public safety.

ACCAN – Australia’s peak body for communications consumers – welcomes today’s announcement by the Minister that several new requirements will apply to mobile carriers in relation to the Triple Zero service.

The range of changes included in a ministerial direction to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will amend the Emergency Call Service Determination.

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Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network Limited (ACCAN) will be held via Zoom, on Thursday 26th September 2024 from 4pm.

Date:  Thursday 26 September 2024
Time:  4pm (AEST)
Venue: Virtual Meeting via Zoom. Please register here by 24 September 2024

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Medical authorities must take urgent action to ensure that users of up to 200,000 medical device are aware of the health threat posed by the looming 3G network shutdown.

ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said the recent delay to the shutdown of the 3G network was to be applauded, but there was growing concern that people were not being warned about the impact on medical devices.

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ACCAN recently submitted to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)’s consultation on its proposed amendments to the Terms of Reference (ToR) 2024.

Our submission supported:

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ACCAN recently submitted to the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee’s consultation on the 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review. 

Since the last Regional Telecommunications Review, regional, rural, and remote (RRR) communities’ experiences of natural disasters and the cost-of-living crisis have highlighted the importance of affordable, reliable, and resilient communications services.

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The growing rate of scams and the devastating impact they are having on Australians has been recognised by the Federal Government through the establishment of the SMS Sender ID Register – but it should be made mandatory.

ACCAN has welcomed this important step in the fight against scams but urges the government to  ensure that all industry participants are doing their part to stop fraudsters from stealing money or information from Australians. That requires a mandatory scheme.

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ACCAN - Australia’s peak communications consumer group – today welcomed the news that the Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland has directed the ACMA to establish an industry standard to ensure telecommunications companies communicate with consumers in the event of an outage.

This reform follows advocacy from ACCAN and other organisations which led to a recommendation in the Bean Review into the Optus Outage of 8 November 2023 that there needed to be a clear industry standard to protect consumers from future outages.    

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