The Aged Care Act, achieved with rare political cooperation, will put residential and home care on a more sustainable basis with individuals’ contributions more closely attuned to their financial position.
When Labor first introduced its legislation to increase the tax burden on 80,000 superannuants, it seemed plain sailing. Now, with opposition spreading across the community to small businesses, farmers, retired judges, public servants and venture capitalists, its passage through the Parliament is looking increasingly unlikely.
Retirees to benefit from legislation targeting scam activity
Retirees will be big beneficiaries of the Scam Code Act that will take the war against scammers to a new level with the legislation requiring social media companies, mobile networks and banks to be far more vigilant in cracking down on fraudulent behaviour.
As The Golden Times revealed last week, heightened activity by law enforcement, government and the private sector has seen a significant drop in the number of retired people being scammed, and, more importantly, the amount of money being lost, but more remains to be done with this proposed Act another important initiative.
This legislation, if passed, will amend existing consumer protections to give the Federal Government broad scope to set minimum expectations for companies under mandatory codes, as well as empowering the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to draft mandatory codes for each industry and to set codes for individual companies.
The social media companies, mobile networks and banks will be liable for fines up to $50 million if it’s shown they did not act promptly when their customers reported a scam. They could also be forced by an expanded federal authority to refund customers who have lost money.
In June, the Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones (pictured), told the National Press Club that the Federal Government would change the law to force banks to compensate Australian customers tricked into transferring money to scammers, adding that the platforms that facilitated scammers contacting individuals and enabling their financial transactions should be doing more to prevent this happening.
In that speech, he said a fundamental characteristic of scams was that they were transactions that were authorised – through deception – by the victim, so the law was not fit-for-purpose.
“We will address this to ensure victims can receive compensation in the right circumstances. Compensation for inaction, for negligence, for failing to meet an obligation is a critical part of our framework.”
But this proposed legislation falls short of placing most of the responsibility of compensating victims on the banks – the UK approach – and instead puts the social media companies and mobile networks in the gun as well.
Although it’s a major step in the right direction and might be a more beneficial approach for all consumers, the suspicion must be that retirees would prefer the prime responsibility to lie with the banks. A recent article, which highlighted the ease in which scammers can get under someone’s guard, the victim, 74-year-old Sylvie Liber, is still trying to get fully compensated by the bank months after the event occurred.
But Jones has decided to take aim at the social media giants for failing to play their role in the multi-billion scourge of scams that hurts the economic benefits of digital commerce, noting that while scam losses fell in 2023, the amount lost to social media activity increased.
Certainly, he has derided the efforts of tech companies to impose voluntary rules on companies as simply not enough, with the proposed Scam Code Act aiming to give all consumers far greater protection.
The Government is conscious of the negative impact that scamming has on digital commerce. It’s difficult to exaggerate, with retirees, in particular, not only being financially cruelled by these scams but left psychologically scarred.
It means they might ignore or overlook calls, texts or emails from legitimate businesses or government agencies that can result in penalties for late payments or miss genuine investment opportunities.
In a concerted effort to help retirees, indeed, all consumers, the ACCC has issued a booklet titled How to spot and avoid scams. In essence, it prescribes a three-step solution:
Stop: Don’t give money or personal information to anyone if unsure. Scammers will offer to help you or ask you to verify who you are. They will pretend to be from organisations you know and trust like service providers, the police, your bank or government services.
Check: Ask yourself could the message or call be fake? Never click a link in a message. Only contact businesses or government using contact information that you find yourself from their official website or app. If you’re not sure, say ‘no’, hang up or delete.
Report: Act quickly if something feels wrong. Contact your bank if you notice unusual activity or if a scammer gets your money or information. Seek help and report the scam to ReportCyber and Scamwatch. When you report scams, you help stop the scam and warn others.
