Consumers' Federation of Australia
The Consumers' Federation of Australia (CFA) is Australia's umbrella consumer advocacy group.

CFA has more than 30 organisational members, made up of large national organisations like CHOICE and COTA Australia, as well as legal centres, financial counselling organisations, research institutions, and state-based consumer organisations. CFA is a full member of Consumers International, the international peak body for the world’s consumer organisations.

CFA is an association incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory, and is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

History 
In the early 1960s the Australian Consumers Association unsuccessfully attempted to establish state and territory branches. The first state or territory based consumer organisation was Canberra Consumers, established in 1963 by Michael Vernon, Godfrey Linge and Bill Howitt. By the late 1970s most states and territories had their own consumer group.

It soon became apparent that lack of coordinated action by these consumer lobby groups was obstructing political change. With the election of Gough Whitlam and the Labor Government in 1972, the Government encouraged the disparate consumer groups to join together and form the Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations (AFCO).

In 1974 after a meeting of 27 consumer groups, led by the Australian Consumers' Association and Canberra Consumers, a constitution was drafted and AFCO was officially founded. AFCO's foundation membership included Canberra Consumers, the Country Women's Association, the Australian Consumers Association and the Consumer Action Movement. In 1994, for ease of reference, AFCO was renamed the Consumers' Federation of Australia (CFA).

During the 1980s and early 1990s, CFA had a nine-member staffing contingent based in Canberra. However, in 1996, the newly elected Howard Federal Government defunded the CFA. After the defunding decision, the CFA had only one part-time paid staff member. And after twelve months, the only staff members remaining were voluntary. CFA continues to operate to this day, but primarily as a voluntary organisation.

Present 
CFA’s activities include supporting communication and networking among its members and consumer advocates; nominating and appointing consumer representatives to various boards, committees, and forums; and advocating on nationally important consumer issues.

Supporting members 
CFA maintains a website that includes consumer news and updates from CFA members, regulators, and policymakers. It also regularly issues newsletters and hosts webinars for members.

In recent years, CFA has delivered a mentoring program, to support the professional development of consumer advocates. The goals of the mentoring program are to improve participant’s effectiveness as a consumer advocate, and to facilitate a network of alumni who are well placed to take up consumer representative roles in the future.

Consumer representation 
One way in which CFA advances the consumer interest is through nominating and supporting consumer representatives who sit on government, community and industry councils, boards and committees, where many of the decisions which affect consumers are made. CFA also provides consumer representatives to Standards Australia committees, which set safety and quality standards for product and services.

CFA co-chairs an annual consumer advocacy sector stakeholder meeting with the Consumer Senior Officials Network, which consists of the most relevant senior official from each of the Commonwealth Treasury, the ACCC, the ASIC, and state, territory and New Zealand agencies responsible for consumer affairs.

Consumer advocacy 
Given its limited resources, CFA does not actively engage in significant consumer advocacy but rather supports and amplifies the advocacy of its member organisations. CFA generally issues a policy agenda ahead of Federal Elections. In 2022, the CFA Policy Agenda called for the following strategic reforms:

·      Appointing a Minister for Consumer Affairs, re-establishing a national Ministerial Council for Consumer Affairs and giving consumers a voice in national policy and regulatory reform.

·      Enhance the Australian Consumer Law through an economy-side prohibition on unfair trading, a new general safety provision, and enacting penalties for consumer guarantees and unfair terms.

·      Modernising travel consumer protection, including through a new Travel and Airline Ombudsman.

·      Addressing scam losses through payment system reforms and a whole-of-government response.

·      Regulating digital platforms to promote competitive outcomes and consumer protection.

·      Targeting inflationary pressures through improving and expanding unit pricing.

·      Renewing consumer credit laws to respond to market changes.

·      Helping consumers transition to respond to climate change and sustainability.

Annual consumer advocacy award 
CFA provides an annual award for the most impactful consumer advocacy campaign on project. The award is provided as part of the annual National Consumer Congress, hosted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Recent award winners have been:

·      2023 – Save Sorry Business Campaign and Stop the Debt Trap Alliance (joint winners)[1]

·      2022 – The Save Safe Lending Campaign

·      2021 – Who is Making Australians Bankrupt? and Junk Insurance in Super (joint winners)[2]

·      2020 – Raphael Grzebieta from the Transport and Road Safety Research Centre for the Quad Bike Performance Project[3]

·      2019 – Financial Counselling Australai for the National Online Gambling Consumer Protection Framework[4]

·      2018 – Consumer Action Law Centre and Financial Rights Legal Centre for the Watch Your Nuts! campaign[5]

Other activities 
CFA issues guidelines for the benefit of industry and regulatory schemes. For example, CFA has developed a set of good practice principles to offer guidance to industry bodies and external dispute resolution schemes about good practice in ensuring effective consumer input, including good practice in involving the consumer sector.

Governance and management 
CFA is governed by a 10-member executive committee made up of nominees of CFA members. The committee meets every two months to advance the work of the association and is supported by a part-time communications and administration officer.

The CFA Standards Project is managed by Consumer Action Law Centre, on behalf of CFA.

Members 
CFA's membership includes

National organisations 
 Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
 Australian Motorcycle Council
 CHOICE
 COTA Australia
 Energy Consumers Australia
 Home Economics Institute of Australia
 Owners Corporation Network
 Super Consumers Australia

Legal centres 
 Caxton Legal Centre
 Consumer Action Law Centre
 Consumer Credit Legal Service WA
 Darwin Community Legal Centre
 Financial Rights Legal Centre
 Hobart Community Legal Centre
 Public Interest Advocacy Centre
 Westjustice

Financial counselling organisations 
 Financial Counselling Australia
 CARE Inc
 Financial Counsellors' Association of NSW
 Financial Counsellors' Association of Qld
 Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network
 Salvation Army MoneyCare

Research bodies 
 Consumer Policy Research Centre

State-based bodies 
 Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association of NSW
 Consumers Association of South Australia
 Public Transport Users Association
 Queensland Consumers Association

References
 A History of the Australian Consumer Movement, Jane Brown, Consumers Federation of Australia, Canberra, 1996
 In the Consumer Interest - A selected history of consumer affairs     in Australia 1945 - 2000,     Simon Smith, SOCAP, Melbourne 2000, ISBN 0-646-40300-1

External links
 Consumers     Federation of Australia  ----[1] http://consumersfederation.org.au/save-sorry-business-campaign-and-stop-the-debt-trap-alliance-win-cfas-2023-consumer-advocacy-award/   [2] http://consumersfederation.org.au/cfa-accc-consumer-advocacy-showcase-award-winners/   [3] http://consumersfederation.org.au/cfa-soapbox-prizewinner-quad-bike-performance-project/   [4] http://consumersfederation.org.au/2019-cfa-advocacy-prizewinner-announced/   [5] http://consumersfederation.org.au/inaugural-cfa-soapbox-prizewinner-watch-your-nuts/ 

Consumer organisations in Australia
Members of Consumers International
Organizations established in 1974
1974 establishments in Australia