Like us
Follow us Forward to a friend
With your help, CHOICE is Taking the Power Back!
Thanks to supporters like you, our Take the Power Back campaign is making spectacular progress.
Yesterday the Senate Select Committee on electricity prices released a report endorsing a number of our recommendations to reduce pressure on household electricity bills.
This comes after CHOICE launched a joint Plan for affordable energy with community and business groups urging real action on Australia's soring electricity prices on Monday. The plan received widespread news coverage, including appearances on Sunrise and ABC News.
With the help of the 3250-plus people who signed our petition, CHOICE has demanded the attention of Australian policy makers. This includes Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson, who responded to our Take the Power Back campaign last week.
But let's keep the momentum going!
It's not too late to sign and share our petition!
The past month also saw the Productivity Commission and the ACCC join the call for smarter electricity regulations and lower prices.
There is a rising chorus for reform. Around Australia, energy ministers are now deciding what action they will take at the COAG meeting in December. We need to keep the pressure on and tell them we demand real action on electricity prices.
Don't let the pollies off the hook - share our petition with your family and friends.
Kind regards,
Matt Levey,
Head of Campaigns
Campaign Updates
CHOICE bags a win on super
CHOICE nabbed a super-win for consumers last month after the federal government announced $10 million in seed funding for an independent Superannuation Consumer Centre. The centre was first proposed by CHOICE in response to the 2009-10 Cooper Super System Review to provide critical support for Australians navigating the complex retirement income system. The announcement comes after months of work from CHOICE Chair Jenni Mack.
Bridging the digital price divide
CHOICE has published a guide to circumventing anti-consumer geo-blocks in order to access cheaper and restricted goods and services online. The guide is the latest in our ongoing campaign against international price discrimination after research this year found Australians pay around 50% more for IT goods
New initiative takes food industry back to the future
Big food companies have launched a new health initiative for reducing salt, saturated fat and kilojoules in processed foods by up to 25% by 2015. They've also committed to reducing product sizes as part of their contribution to the fight against diet-related disease. While these targets may sound impressive, the new initiative is being backdated to 2008, with any reductions that have already been made over the past four years counting towards the "new" targets.
Greens open a western front in free-range battle
Western Australia is the latest state to be considering free-range egg legislation, with a Greens upper house member introducing a bill to limit free-range claims to eggs from operations with a maximum of 1500 birds per hectare outdoors
Take this consumer survey today!
The Consumers Federation of Australia is the peak body for consumer organisations in Australia. It has 40 member organisations, including CHOICE, and is currently conducting a survey on consumers. The results will help the Consumers Federation provide support for consumer advocates. You can help the consumer movement in Australian by taking the survey now.