Financial Rights, Financial Counselling Australia and Redfern Legal Centre generally support the attempt by the FSC to add consumer protections to the Life Code as going some way to addressing the concerns of consumers, regulators and government. The FSC needs to strengthen commitments with respect to the sale of funeral insurance, sales practices, and the treatment of people with a mental illness. We have identified a large number of recommendations made by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (PJC) Inquiry into the Life Insurance Industry Report or ASIC Report 587 on the sale of direct life insurance that have failed to be addressed. We have also identified a large number of clauses that have been drafted or re-drafted in a manner that seems to solely benefit the life insurer. A number of issues arising out of the first iteration of the Life Code have failed to be adequately addressed by the FSC or addressed at all. We also express our concerns with the consultation process undertaken by the FSC.
