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National Indigenous Consumer Strategy

Taking Action Gaining Trust

The National Indigenous Consumer Strategy promotes effective engagement and partnership between consumer protection agencies, Indigenous organisations, business and other government agencies to improve consumer outcomes for Indigenous people.

This National Indigenous Consumer Strategy was developed by the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs (MCCA), which represents all Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments.

The objectives of the strategy are to:

  1. improve Indigenous consumers' knowledge of their rights and obligations under consumer protection laws and achieve greater Indigenous access to consumer protection programs;
  2. improve the behaviour of traders in the marketplace through education and compliance activity in the hope that the negative consumer experiences by Indigenous consumers will be significantly reduced; and
  3. promote effective engagement and partnership between consumer protection agencies, Indigenous organisations, business and other government agencies to improve consumer outcomes for Indigenous people.

The Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs has released Taking Action, Gaining Trust - A National Indigenous Consumer Strategy [PDF 1.2mb].and the Mid Term Strategy Report.

In addition a National Indigenous Consumer Strategy Implementation Reference Group has been established to monitor the implementation of the Strategy and to help ensure that initiatives and experiences in implementing the Strategy are shared between jurisdictions.

This Reference Group is chaired by Western Australia and includes representatives from the:

  • Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission,
  • New South Wales Office of Fair Trading,
  • Northern Territory Office of Consumer Affairs,
  • Queensland Office of Fair Trading and
  • South Australian Office of Consumer and Business Affairs.

In addition, the Reference Group membership includes Indigenous lawyer, Ms Robynne Quiggin, and the Queensland-based Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network.

The national NICS web site, provides detailed information about the detail of the National Indigenous Consumer Strategy and its implementation. You will also be able to access a wide range of resource materials relevant to Indigenous consumer issues and follow links to all the participating agencies’ own web sites.