THE Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has warmly welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement to extend AFCA’s remit to review eligible financial complaints dating back to January 1, 2008.

Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive Officer, David Locke said AFCA will work with all stakeholders to implement these changes fairly and effectively. 

“We believe that this will provide access to justice and redress to many thousands of Australian consumers,” Mr Locke said.

“AFCA’s remit will be expanded for a period of 12 months to accept eligible complaints regarding conduct dating back to 1 January 2008.  

“In most cases, we are currently only able to consider matters that have occurred within the last six years. When a complaint has been through a financial firm's internal dispute resolution process, this timeframe is reduced to two years.  

“This change means that many more people will be able to get access to justice and have their matters properly considered.”  

AFCA will consider eligible complaints between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, following the AFCA rules being updated.  

AFCA will run a limited consultation regarding required changes to its rules, which will need to be approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. 

“We will be issuing guidance prior to 1 July 2019 to explain how people can raise their matters with us,” Mr Locke said.  

About AFCA

• The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is a non-government organisation that is approved by the Federal Government to administer a free, fair and independent dispute resolution scheme.
• AFCA consider complaints about financial products and services.
• AFCA’s service is offered as an alternative to tribunals and courts to resolve complaints consumers and small businesses have with their financial firms.
• AFCA was established following the 2016 Ramsay Review into how Australia’s external dispute resolution framework could be improved to deliver effective outcomes for all Australian consumers and small business.
• On November 1, 2018, AFCA replaced the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Credit and Investments Ombudsman and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal as the one-stop-shop for financial dispute resolution.
• Consumers and small businesses can lodge a complaint with AFCA online at afca.org.au, via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phoning 1800 931 678.

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DEVELOPMENT of Australia’s first offshore wind farm, which would power up to 1.2 million homes, has been stalled by Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s failure to sign off on an exploration license allowing a detailed assessment of the wind resource to commence, according to the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).

The Department of the Environment and Energy confirmed during Senate Estimates that an evaluation of the project has been undertaken, a plan for a customised exploration license developed, and a briefing and recommendations provided to the Energy Minister, but that the project can progress no further without the Minister granting the exploration licence.

The Star of the South project seeks to construct 250 wind turbines in Commonwealth waters off the coast of Victoria’s Gippsland region, generating up to 20 percent of Victoria’s electricity needs and feeding the power into the National Electricity Market via an underground cable to the Latrobe Valley.

The Maritime Union of Australia said the project — which the company claims will create up to 12,000 manufacturing and construction jobs and slash Australia’s carbon emissions — appeared to be falling victim to the Morrison Government’s ideological hatred of renewable energy.

MUA deputy national secretary Will Tracey said the exploration license awaiting approval did not allow construction to commence and was simply about allowing the use of floating buoys and platforms off the Gippsland coast to gather wind and wave observations.

“We have a major wind project that would create thousands of jobs and provide clean, reliable energy for more than a million Australian households, but because of their ideological hatred of renewable energy the Morrison Government appears to be actively stalling its development,” Mr Tracey said.

"The Star of the South project has been in the works since 2012, yet in this time no legislation has been put forward, no regulatory framework put in place, and no responsible agency nominated, despite offshore wind being an established industry internationally.

“Now we have revelations from Senate Estimates that Energy Minister Angus Taylor has been briefed on the project and presented with recommendations, yet the exploration license continues to sit on his desk gathering dust.

"Rather than support renewable energy projects, under the Morrison Government we can't even get approval for a few wind measurement buoys off the Gippsland coast.

“Energy Minister Angus Taylor must get off his hands and immediately allow the Star of the South wind project to move forward to the exploration stage.”

Mr Tracey said offshore wind generation was a mature industry internationally which has successfully operated for two decades, but Australia was falling behind, putting future employment opportunities at risk.

“This project isn’t just about generating renewable energy and tackling climate change, it’s about creating secure jobs for the future, particularly for workers who are being displaced from the offshore oil and gas industries,” he said.

"The Federal Government urgently needs to put in place a plan to support the development of the offshore wind industry, including a clear regulatory framework, along with the right port infrastructure and specialised construction vessels to roll out this project and others like it as quickly as possible.”

www.mua.org.au

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PETITIONS to the House of Representatives with over 20,000 signatures would be debated by the House under recommendations made by the House Petitions Committee.

Committee Chair Lucy Wicks MP said the recommendation threshold is based on a similar system in the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, which has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the public.

"In the UK, the Petitions Committee can schedule a debate on a petition in Westminster Hall, if it reaches over 100,000 signatures," Mrs Wicks said.

"Our Committee proposes using similar criteria to the UK in selecting petitions for debate, once they have gathered over 20,000 signatures."

The report makes a number of other recommendations around simplifying the process of petitioning the Parliament, and educating the public about how to lodge or sign a petition.

"We hope these changes will encourage more Australians to engage with petitioning the House, which is the most direct way of having your matter heard by the Parliament," Mrs Wicks said.

The full report is available on the inquiry webpage.

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THE Queensland Resources Council (QRC) said securing a long-term pipeline of new resources projects would be essential for Queensland to make further inroads into bringing down the state’s unemployment rate.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the release of the latest ABS figures showed Queensland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.0 percent in January, just a minor decrease from 6.1 percent in December.

“We want to help bring that unemployment rate down further, and in particular to help create new jobs in regional communities such as Townsville, where the unemployment rate is higher than the state average,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“The resources sector has the track record of delivering jobs.  The sector supports the jobs of more than 316,000 Queenslanders across the state, both in direct resources jobs and in associated industries.

“Over the last year the resources sector has added more than 10,000 new jobs – or a job every 40 minutes.

“There are more opportunities too, with online job search tool Seek currently advertising around 1250 vacancies for mining, resources and energy jobs in Queensland.

“Our sector is continuing to work alongside the tourism and agriculture industries, and in particular we are proud to lend a hand to the regional communities doing it tough first through the recent drought and now during the flood recovery.

“We want to keep employing more Queenslanders and supporting more regional communities through local investment.

“To do that, it’s essential that we have clear and transparent rules and regulations. 

“There is so much potential through our powerhouse commodities of coal and gas, as well as great potential in new markets for the critical minerals the Australian Government is supporting via CRC project investment, and in the North West Minerals Province which the State Government has prioritised.

“The potential for resources investment in Queensland is vast and lucrative. 

“We must ensure we have the best framework for investors to be confident that Queensland is the right place to invest and create new jobs.”

www.qrc.org.au

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A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry has found evidence of loopholes in migration law which enable Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) (subclass 601) visa holders to exploit Australia’s immigration system and unscrupulous individuals providing unregistered immigration advice, unlawful registered migration agents and education agents are exploiting visa applicants.

Joint Standing Committee on Migration chair, Jason Wood MP said the committee has heard that a percentage of Malaysian nationals are using travel visas as a gateway to circumvent Australia’s immigration system and enter and stay in Australia and obtain work by applying for a protection visa.

"This represents an orchestrated scam that provides protection visa applicants the right to work in Australia until their claims are finalised," Mr Wood said.

"This process has taken up to eight years in some cases and has cost the Australian taxpayer over $46 million in the last three years."

The report recommends fast-tracking the process for Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) (subclass 601) visa holders who have lodged a protection visa application.

Mr Wood said evidence from the inquiry also found that some individuals have been left substantially out of pocket after being exploited by either unregistered or registered migration agents or education agents.

"While the majority of registered migration agents and education agents are diligent, knowledgeable, hardworking and competent and provide outstanding service, there are individuals in these industries that take advantage of vulnerable consumers," Mr Wood said.

"Victims of unscrupulous and unlawful migration or education agents are left with very few options for taking action and are unable to seek recompense. The relevant authorities face multiple challenges in detecting, deterring, disrupting, investigating and prosecuting cases."

The final report of the inquiry into the regulation of migration agents, tabled in the House of Representatives today recommends establishing an Immigration Assistance Complaints Commissioner with broad regulatory powers over the migration and education agent industry.

The full report can be found on the Committee’s website: www.aph.gov.au/mig

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THE House Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue today tabled its performance review of the ATO’s Annual Report 2016–2017.

The Committee’s review continues in the tradition of past assessments, which since 2015 have monitored the progress of the ATO’s ‘Reinvention’ of its services model in support of voluntary compliance. According to the ATO’s 2017 annual report, the Reinvention Program has delivered against this goal over the tax year. Tax lodgements were up again strongly –a positive outcome for the ATO.

But the 2016-17 reporting period was also a challenging one for the ATO, and one marked by controversy. In May 2017 the revelations of Operation Elbrus followed the prolonged system outages of late 2016 and early 2017 that left tax professionals without service access for lengthy periods.

Then, as the Committee commenced its annual report review in March 2018, there was an acceleration of bad press as the ATO fought off allegations of systemic unfairness to small business, and performance driven debt action, which were televised in an ABC/Fairfax media expose in April 2018.

These developments strengthened the Committee’s resolve to conduct a more rigorous performance review of the ATO’s progress against Reinvention values and objectives; in effect to test the ATO’s annual reportage against the experience of the taxpayer, and tax agents, in the community.

Committee Chair Jason Falinski MP said, “The Committee found that the ATO’s digital reinvention of its services has changed every aspect of our tax administration framework for taxpayers and tax professionals alike. Taxpayers now have greater responsibilities to meet their obligations, and the work of tax professionals has increased rather than declined.

“Given this,” Mr Falinski said, “it has never been more important that the ATO retain community confidence—that it meets its core obligations to procedural fairness, and that it is seen to do so, while also ensuring its online platforms are as efficient and as easy to use as promised.”

The Committee’s inquiry attracted 30 submissions, 18 of these from taxpayers in dispute with the ATO, as well as from tax professionals assisting them. The Committee has made 37 recommendations to ensure that there is consistent agency-wide benchmarking and reporting against core Reinvention commitments on fairness to taxpayers and on digital functionality.

The report also recommends for improved data disaggregation on small business debt, including on garnishees, the restructuring of the ATO’s appeals, dispute resolution and compensation processes, refinement of key aspects of tax law, and improvements to the ATO’s communications and information strategies.

The Committee’s report, entitled 2017 Annual Report of the Australian Taxation Office: Fairness, Functions and Frameworks—Performance Review, is available on the Committee’s website here.

The 2017 Annual Report of the Australian Taxation Office is available at: www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Annual-report-2016-17/

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RESOURCE companies TerraCom and South32 Cannington have increased donations from the sector to $3.75 million for the flood recovery efforts in North Queensland.
 
Queensland Resources Council (QRC) chief executive Ian Macfarlane said TerraCom donated $250,000 to GIVIT, while South32’s Cannington mine added another $250,000 to the company’s original $1 million.
 
“Thank-you to TerraCom and South32 Cannington for generously supporting communities affected by this significant weather event. The contributions from the resource sector will go a long way to helping Queenslanders get back on their feet,” Mr Macfarlane said. 
 
“I would also like to thank all of the resource employees who have been walking up and down streets to help remove flood damaged property from people’s homes and to our member companies who have provided equipment to assist in the recovery. 

“The cooperation between the mine sites and the sharing of local knowledge with the Disaster Relief Task Force is ensuring resources are getting on the ground as quickly as they can. 

“Glencore has supported hay drops by providing access to its Ernest Henry site for the RAAF to conduct their operations.  It has also provided heavy equipment (loaders & forklifts) and people power to assist in the hay drops for stranded cattle and for the removal of dead cattle.
 
“Adani Australia has had employees helping to clean out affected homes which were inundated from the floodwaters. 
 
“South32 Cannington has also provided heavy equipment for near neighbours in the disposal of dead cattle and has been on standby to help with refuelling at its airport if needed as part of the hay drops," Mr Macfarlane said.

“Queenslanders are renowned for being tough.  These are resilient communities and they know how to dig in and work together after a disaster. It’s great to see our members getting stuck in and helping their neighbours and regional communities.”

In total, South32 has donated $1,250,000, Glencore contributed $1,000,000, the BHP Foundation, MMG Dugald River and Aurizon provided $250,000 each, Anglo American tipped in $200,000 while QCoal Foundation, Adani Australia and Incitec Pivot donated $100,000 each.
 
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk started the appeal with a $200,000 donation and her Government listed The Australian Red Cross, UnitingCare, Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland as the non-government partners and said people can also donate to GIVIT.

www.qrc.org.au

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THE House Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy will hold a second public hearing tomorrow for its inquiry into controlling the spread of cane toads.

The Department of the Environment and Energy, the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources and the CSIRO will give evidence at the hearing.

The inquiry is focused on how cane toads can be controlled and additional support that could be provided.

Public hearing programs, submissions received and further information can be found on the inquiry website at www.aph.gov.au/canetoad.

Last week, the Committee heard evidence from scientists, researchers and non-government organisations involved in controlling cane toads.  A proof transcript and other details are available on the inquiry website.

Public hearing details: 10am–11am (Canberra time), Wednesday 20 February 2019, Committee Room 1R5, Parliament House, Canberra

An audio broadcast of the public hearing can be accessed at https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Parliament.

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