Commonwealth, State, Territory and New Zealand Consumer Affairs Ministers met on Tuesday 10 December 2024 to renew their commitment to strengthen consumer protections across the country.
Ministers attending the meeting, chaired by Commonwealth Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, acknowledged the substantial progress on key reforms to the Australian Consumer Law over the past year, including work to strengthen consumer guarantees, address unfair trading practices, and make products safer and cheaper for consumers through easier recognition of trusted overseas product safety standards.
At the meeting, Ministers heard directly from Consumers' Federation Australia, the peak body for consumer advocates in Australia, to better understand key issues affecting consumers and priority opportunities for policy and law reform.
Ministers agreed on policy priorities for 2025, including:
- progressing nation‑wide reforms to protect consumers from unfair trading practices
- introducing prohibitions and penalties to enhance the effectiveness of the consumer guarantees and supplier indemnification regime
- strengthening Australia's product safety framework to improve consumer safety and increase choice
- strengthening the Unit Pricing Code to support consumers to identify better value for money
- continuing implementation of the Scams Prevention Framework, and efforts across governments, including with the New Zealand government, to make Australia and New Zealand harder targets for scammers
- ensuring consumer protection laws remain fit‑for‑purpose to protect consumers using AI‑enabled products and services.
Ministers welcomed the introduction of Commonwealth legislation to establish a Scams Prevention Framework that will protect Australian consumers from scams. The Framework will impose a series of obligations on banks, telecommunications providers and digital platforms providing social media services, search advertising and direct messaging services to help stop scammers and keep Australian's money safe.
Ministers noted that, as agreed by Treasurers as part of their Productivity Agenda at the recent Council of Federal Financial Relations meeting, the Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments will cooperate to harmonise and consistently implement the regulation of household electrical consumer products. This will see the creation of a National Meeting of Consumer Electrical Safety Ministers who will, once established, oversee and monitor implementation of agreed reforms including investigating risk‑based regulation of extra‑low voltage electrical products (such as certain lithium‑ion batteries). Ministers also agreed to establish a cross‑jurisdictional working group, led by NSW, to pursue a national approach under the Australian Consumer Law to address the safe use of lithium‑ion battery powered e‑micromobility vehicles. Ministers also agreed to explore the most appropriate mechanism to ensure safe disposal of lithium‑ion batteries.
Ministers discussed consumer issues in retirement villages, strata schemes and practices in the real estate sector. They noted recent steps taken to uplift consumer protections across all three issues. Ministers agreed to report on progress throughout 2025 as they continue to identify opportunities for harmonisation and meaningful uplift in standards to protect consumers in these areas.
Attendees at the meeting included:
Commonwealth Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones
New South Wales Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong
Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gabrielle Williams
South Australian Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Andrea Michaels
Western Australian Minister for Commerce, Sue Ellery
Australian Capital Territory Attorney‑General, Tara Cheyne
New Zealand Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Andrew Bayly
Senior departmental officials included:
Queensland Commissioner for Fair Trading, Victoria Thomson
Tasmanian Executive Director of Consumer Building and Occupational Services, Robyn Pearce
Northern Territory Acting Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Rebecca Davey
Quotes attributable to Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones MP
"Consumer Affairs Ministers are committed to working together to deliver meaningful reform to the Australian Consumer Law and improve consumer protections at a state, territory and national level.
"Australian consumers deserve a fair go, including when shopping online. Coordinated national action on unfair trading practices will stop the rip offs and help consumers get a better deal.
"Scams are a scourge on all Australians. Tackling scams is a national issue, and all levels of government are working together to make Australia the toughest target in the world for criminal scammers."
