Submissions

Australian insurance policyholders have waited years for a stronger, more enforceable General Insurance Code of Practice. While the redrafted code includes some new protections, it fails to deliver for consumers in significant ways.

This consultation is the last chance for general insurers to shift from a conservative approach towards consumers, to engaging in good faith as genuine partners in risk mitigation. It’s clear that bold actions are needed to regain the trust of Australians.

After almost five years of tough talk and promises, the Government has presented Australians with a weak and confusing set of proposals that will offer only basic protection against scams. Strong consumer protections addressing consumer harms wrought by scams requires far more courage and ambition from Government than is evident in this proposal.

Financial Rights strongly submits that long-overdue reforms to the personal insolvency system will reduce barriers to business dynamism. We refer the Commission to previous submissions we have made on various aspects of insolvency.

Reforming the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) is unfinished business that needs to be resolved to ensure fairer outcomes for consumers and improve insurance affordability. It has been well-documented that the ESL is a regressive tax that contributes to insurance affordability pressures, particularly for climate-exposed households. Households and businesses that take out property insurance fund emergency services, while those that do not, including large businesses who self-insure, benefit from the protection of emergency services without contributing to their funding. Levy costs are not aligned with ability to pay, penalising higher-risk or lower-capacity households while allowing large, self-insured entities to avoid costs.

This Joint Consumer Submission was developed collaboratively by consumer advocates, financial counsellors, legal assistance services, First Nations advocates and community organisations working directly with people experiencing financial difficulty, vulnerability and exclusion from banking services. The experiences reflected in our original submission were grounded in frontline casework and direct engagement with people navigating banking systems during periods of crisis, vulnerability and instability. We welcome much of the direction of the report, however there are still parts we remain concerned about.

The only effective solution to the entrenched problem of lead generation is to ban it in superannuation, by banning unlicensed commercial communication and advertising in relation to superannuation, and extending the hawking ban to all financial products and services. It is unviable to add new regulatory obligations, such as licensing and consumer disclosures, to a highly exploitative business model. It is also inadequate to leave ASIC to repair the damage after it is done. We also recommend a ban on lead generation for debt management and life insurance, given the similar significant harms. We share the Government’s commitment to stamping out manipulative business models that have cost people their financial safety net in retirement.

The Federal Government has made an important commitment to legislate unfair trading. We see this as one of the most powerful consumer protections that will greatly benefit Australians. Our strong recommendation is that the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 is passed by the Senate as soon as possible.

This supplementary submission seeks to clarify understanding of the law as it applies to life insurers and its interaction with their code obligations. Overall, we welcome the recommendations made in the Interim Report and commend the review for its thorough consideration of a set of multiple complex issues. We also welcome further consideration of the issues raised with respect to mental health and blanket exclusions. There is significant complexity here, complexity made worse by the historical approach taken by life insurers to meeting the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.

The consumer movement has long called for measures to address the harms consumers are experiencing with respect to the application of a bundle of key terms of exclusion in home insurance policies. We have consistently sought harmonisation and simplification of specific terms relating to “maintenance,” wear and tear,” “pre-existing damage” and “defects” in the form of standardised definitions. Combined with educational materials and further reforms to insurer claims handling, we believe the consumer harms we regularly see everyday can and should be addressed. We feel the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA’s) application for authorisation AA1000720 and the Proposed Conduct therein is unlikely to result in a public benefit that outweighs the detriment to the public. Consequently, we oppose the ACCC authorising the Application.

We strongly support the proposed reforms outlined by the Essential Services Commission in the consultation paper. We consider that these reforms will provide significant relief to Victorian consumers experiencing payment difficulty, vulnerability and/or barriers to engaging with the complex energy market, and will go a long way in providing assistance to those consumers who need it most.

This submission comments on the 2026 Independent Review of the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) Code of Practice (the Code). Throughout it we provide examples from our casework of the harm caused by customer-owned banking sector service failures. The intention of this submission is to provide insights into where the customer-owned banking sector can improve.

CHOICE, FCA, Good Shepherd, ICAN and Mob Strong welcome the introduction of the low-cost essentials subsidy scheme. It is a significant and positive step towards addressing the disproportionately high cost of food and groceries in remote communities, and improving access to essential items for First Nations people. However it is too early to determine the full impact of the scheme on prices, availability, and access to affordable food and groceries. Early observations suggest that the scheme is having a positive impact, but there remain significant risks and gaps in its implementation and enforcement that may limit its effectiveness going forward, if left unaddressed. This submission makes a number of recommendations to strengthen the scheme.

The Federal Government has made an important commitment to legislate unfair trading. We see this as one of the most powerful consumer protections that, legislated clearly, will greatly benefit Australians. Consumer groups welcome the opportunity to work with Treasury and relevant Ministers to make these reforms as clear and effective as possible. The proposed exposure draft on unfair trading has no general ban for unfair trading. This is an important element to get right.

Financial Rights, Consumer Action and Financial Counsellors’ Association of Western Australia (FCAWA) generally supports the CGC continuing to prioritise work on complaints handling, identification and treatment of vulnerable consumers, financial hardship, temporary accommodation, scope of works, cash settlements and claims delays and external experts. We have noted ongoing issues with insurers refusing to recognise valid Third Party Authorities. Consistent acceptance of authorised representatives remains essential to fair and accessible claims handling. We think it is worth examining insurer’s compliance with Clause 98 that insurers will “try to make sure our processes are flexible enough to recognise the authority of your support person.”

Implementing an industry wide DSM for add-on insurance was one of the key recommendations Commissioner Hayne made for the insurance industry. Known behavioural biases inherent in the add-on sales process have been long exploited by the insurance industry and their retailing partners, which have prioritised making a quick buck over selling suitable insurance products that people want and need. The sale of these products continues to cause significant consumer harm, particularly in situations where excessive commissions are being paid to retailers for pushing poor value – and sometimes worthless – insurance products.

We support the separate submission made by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) to this consultation. We welcome the step forward this consultation represents. However, for the Scam Prevention Framework to deliver on its promise of world leading protections for Australians, Government must plug the holes in its coverage. Government must also be genuinely ambitious in the actions it mandates the ecosystem of SPF businesses take to genuinely detect, prevent and disrupt scams.

Given the intersection of trauma, anxiety and what is ultimately a hard-nosed, contract-based financial product – life insurers have a unique obligation to work with their customers in sensitive, ethical and compassionate ways to ensure that they do not make things worse, and not exploit them. The evidence outlined in this submission however suggests a sector that is continuing to fail to meet this basic standard.

This submission is provided on behalf of Consumer Action Law Centre, Mob Strong Debt Help, Financial Rights Legal Centre, ICAN, Mortgage Stress Victoria and Financial Counselling Australia. We thank the BCCC for the opportunity to provide feedback on its draft guidance on basic bank accounts (BBAs). These accounts are critically important for low- and no-income customers, ensuring access to fair and affordable everyday banking products, which are essential to financial inclusion and stability.

This joint submission is on behalf of Financial Rights Legal Centre (Financial Rights) and Financial Counselling Australia, providing comments and recommendations on Treasury’s Review of the Terrorism and Cyclone Insurance Act 2003.

This submission provides comments and recommendations on one specific area of inquiry: Part 5 Exemptions and specifically Question 33 regarding whether any of the permanent exemptions should be narrowed or updated.