Policy Priorities and Campaigns
Our policy and campaign work integrates with our hotline advice and casework, both from our financial counsellors and our solicitors.
We aim to identify systemic issues that contribute to financial hardship and consumer detriment, and then develop law reform, advocacy and educational responses.
We promote reforms in regulation, policy and industry practices that will help create a fairer marketplace for consumers, particularly disadvantaged consumers.
Financial Rights makes submissions to government and industry, participate in working groups, comment on draft legislation, undertake research, refer unfair practices and systematic issues to regulators and/or industry groups for investigation, and raise awareness through the media.
We also provide a range of publications including landmark reports, educational tools, webinars and newsletters to keep consumers and professionals abreast of developments in key policy areas.
Our Policy Priorities
Financial Rights recognises that there is a vast range of policy issues that impact consumer in financial stress. We must prioritise the issues on which we work to ensure that our resources are used strategically, efficiently and for the benefit of disadvantaged consumers.
While we will ensure we remain responsive to consumer policy issues and debates as they arise, we will retain our focus on the following priority areas during 2023-2024.
Financial Rights’ policy activities are funded by NSW Fair Trading, NSW Attorney General and ecstra.
Primary Policy Priorities
- Bankruptcy: Reform of bankruptcy including increasing the minimum threshold for bankruptcy
- Strata: Introduce protections for people in strata schemes experiencing financial hardship
- Credit reporting: Strong consumer and privacy protections built into the credit reporting regime
- Extreme Weather Events: Improving insurer assessment processes and consumer claims outcomes
- Buy Now Pay Later: Regulating to address consumer harm
Secondary Policy Priorities
- Data and privacy, including banning screen scraping
- Enforceable Codes, reviewing General insurance Code and ASIC RG 183
- Economic abuse, to improve the financial services sector approach
Supporting Policy Priorities
Supporting other consumers groups (although we continue to provide client services)
- Responsible lending
- Mortgage stress
- Scams
- Local council rates hardship
