The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today launched the ‘ACCC – Your Rights Mob Tiwi Islands’ Facebook page on the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory.
This is a pilot consumer protection initiative aimed at Indigenous residents of remote communities. The Facebook page will allow Indigenous consumers to report issues directly to ACCC staff through a private message or wall post.
“This is just one of the latest ways the ACCC is engaging with Indigenous consumers to help them confidently exercise their consumer rights and for the ACCC to identify, understand and respond to important consumer issues,” NT Regional Director Derek Farrell said.
“We consider this an important step in increasing consumer access channels to the ACCC. We hope that social media will provide a new means for early reporting of contraventions of consumer law and we would encourage people to ‘like’ our page.”
“We also hope the educational messages delivered on this page will lead to more effective protection for Indigenous consumers,” Mr Farrell said.
As part of this initiative the ACCC also produced five short films, which were filmed using Indigenous residents of the Tiwi community. These films cover topics such as consumer guarantees, telemarketing, door to door sales and product safety.
“By grounding the project in an Indigenous community, it is hoped that the films will resonate well with Indigenous consumers. The aim is to pilot the concept on the Tiwi Islands before expanding to other communities,” Mr Farrell said.
These films will be uploaded to Facebook and YouTube over the next three months.
The ACCC is working closely with NT Consumer Affairs, the Consumer Affairs agencies of other States and the ACT, and organisations such as the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network to ensure that the rights of Indigenous consumers are protected.
The ‘ACCC – Your Rights Mob Tiwi Islands’ Facebook page can be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/ACCCTiwi
For more information about the ACCC’s Indigenous Consumer Protection Strategy, call the ACCC’s Indigenous Infoline on 1300 302 143.