Our submission to eh Australian Senate inquiry broadly supported the provisions of the Bill, while calling for the legislation to go much further to protect groups more effectively against hate speech.

The JEC, ACOSS and SACOSS provided a joint response to the AER’s Issues Paper, which sought feedback on an appropriate methodology and calculation inputs for DMO 7. Our organisations provided feedback on how to ensure the DMO best serves the interests of consumers.

The JEC made a submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s rule change process concerning changes to how the market operator considers demand-side factors, such as the take-up of behind the meter generation, demand response, electrification, energy efficiency improvements, and demand shifting. While we support the rule change proposal, we made some small qualifications of this support.

Our submission to the Australian Energy Regulator’s draft guideline identifies that system security network support services are a growing area of need, as the energy system moves from a fossil fuel basis to a renewable one. We argue that the proposed regulatory system for these investments offers inadequate alignment between the interests of consumers and the transmission network service providers (TNSPs) who invest in these services on their behalf.

We made a submission to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s consultation on a proposal from EnelX to introduce three new baseline methodologies to the Wholesale Demand Response Mechanism. We argued that all three proposed new methodologies should be introduced on the basis that doing so will increase the pool of potential demand response participants.

Following the release of the Aviation White Paper, the Federal Government is establishing an Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme to resolve consumer complaints. Our submission highlight the need to consider people with disability in the design of the Ombuds Scheme, including in setting up the Board to govern the Ombuds Scheme and developing the complaints process. 

Our submission made recommendations on three issues where we have expertise and see negative impacts on the rights and wellbeing of children and young people in Australia: the age of criminal responsibility; the use of pre-emptive policing tools; and the use of solitary confinement in youth justice centres. While largely regarded as issues arising under state and territory laws, we argue the Commonwealth Government can and should play a role in leading and coordinating reform on these issues.

This is the fourth submission we have made during the Government's review of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We welcome the introduction of the Government Bill to implement some of the recommendations of the Privacy Act Review Report 2023, which would represent the first broad and meaningful reform to the Privacy Act in decades. However, our submission focuses on important amendments that should be made to improve the utility and efficacy of the statutory tort.