Congress Program
The overall theme of the 2010 Congress is ‘Consumer Action’, a topic that will be directly addressed in a discussion hosted by Radio National's Eleanor Hall on the first day of the Congress.
The second day of the Congress will comprise the 'National Consumer Summit' which will explore key challenges facing consumers in three areas: 'Smart Choices', 'Getting Policy Development Right' and 'When Things Go Wrong'.
This year the annual Ruby Hutchison Lecture will be given by Jeanette Longfield of Sustain UK who will address challenges for consumers and consumer policy in relation to food, including labelling, sustainability and prices.
For a full copy of the program click on the program link below.
View or join the discussion of the 12 key challenges at the National Consumer Summit discussion page.
The Congress has secured an exciting array of speakers – some of which are listed below.
For a full list of speakers click on the speakers link below.
Tony D'Alosio
Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Tony D’Aloisio was appointed Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission on 13 May 2007.Tony was previously Chief Executive Officer at the Australian Stock Exchange and Chief Executive Partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Joining Mallesons in 1977, Tony practised as a commercial lawyer. in mergers and acquisitions, taxation and restrictive trade practices and international trade and investment.
Robert Fitzgerald AM
Productivity Commission
A commercial solicitor by profession Robert, has been a full time Commissioner with the Productivity Commission since 2004. He has presided on 11 Inquiries including into Australia's Consumer Policy 2008 and Consumer Product Safety 2006. He was also a Councillor on the National Competition Council. Robert has over 30 years involvement in the community sector including previously as President of Australian Council of Social Service.
Eleanor Hall
Presenter, ABC Radio
Eleanor Hall is the voice of ABC Radio Current Affairs at midday.
With a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York, Eleanor is a truly international journalist who has reported with intelligence and compassion from all corners of the globe.
Lisa Gray, Group Executive, NAB Personal Banking
Lisa Gray leads NAB Personal Banking, an Australia-wide team of 10,000 people delivering banking products and services to more than three million retail and small business customers, as well as NAB’s UBank and Advantedge subsidiaries. Previously, Lisa was also CEO of MLC Wealth Protection and CEO of Plum Financial Services.
Dr Nicolas Gruen
Dr Nicholas Gruen is trained in History, Statistics, Law and Economics and has written on various economic policy issues including red tape busting and regulation review, information policy with applications in consumer policy and innovation in government.
Jeanette Longfield
Coordinator, Sustain
Sustain, the UK alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance health and welfare, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. After five years at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. Jeanette campaigned at the Coronary Prevention Group. Four years on she became Co-ordinator of the National Food Alliance, now Sustain. She was awarded an MBE for services to food policy in 2007.
Chris Meyer
Vice President External Affairs for Consumers Union (USA)
Chris Meyer works at Consumers Union, an expert, independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for consumers. Chris directs Consumers Union's advocacy and public education efforts, and manages CU's communications and development operations.
Jonathan Mintz
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs
Commissioner Mintz has modernized and directed the Department's services to serve consumers and businesses in the City's diverse marketplace; forged innovative and strategic partnerships with a broad array of stakeholders in the private, public and non-profit sectors; and expanded the reach of the agency to new industries and objectives. Commissioner Mintz also founded and is Co-Chair of the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE), a coalition of municipal governments nationwide committed to aggressively and creatively leveraging local opportunities, resources, and powers to improve the financial health of their residents.
For information on the Congress Dinner, Choice Awards and the Consumer Summit please read below.
Congress Dinner & CHOICE Awards
Date: Monday 15 March 2010
Venue: Crystal Palace, Luna Park
Time: 1930 – 2200hrs
The social highlight of the Congress will be the Dinner and Awards evening on Monday 15 March. Enjoy a delicious meal accompanied by fine wine whilst the Choice Awards Ceremony takes place.
This even is not included in the registration fee but a discounted rate of A$50.00 per person is offered for Congress delegates.
Should you require additional tickets for your partner or guests who have not registered for the Congress, you may purchase additional tickets at A$120.00 per person.
Please complete either the online registration form or Section D of your hard copy registration form.
Dinner Tickets: A$50.00 per person (registered delegates)
Additional Tickets: A$120.00 per person (accompanying persons)
Non-delegates/guests who wish to attend the CHOICE Awards can purchase tickets by completing the online booking form below.
Awards Tickets: A$150.00 per person (non-delegates/guests)
National Consumer Summit at the National Consumer Congress 2010
The second day of the Congress will be in the form of a ‘Consumer Summit’.
The purpose of the Summit is to develop possible responses to key challenges facing consumer policy, government consumer agencies, business and consumers in the following three key areas:
Smart Choices
Consumer welfare is best served when consumers make the choices that promote their interests. But they face many obstacles, including ready access to accurate, trustworthy and comprehensible information, potential exploitation of mistakes caused by behavioral biases. What is the best response by policy makers and information providers in business, government and consumer organisations?
When Things Go Wrong
This stream will examine best practice in responding to complaint handling and redress where consumers are dissatisfied with products or consumer protection provisions are breached. Which companies learn best from their complaints? What is good and bad about current complaint handling systems? What about best practice in enforcement of consumer protection? Are consumer redress provisions adequate?
Best Practice Policy Development
The focus here is on mechanisms to promote good practice in policy development. Who provides leadership in which areas? Are current consultation, research and review processes working? How can we break down policy making silos between agencies responsible for consumer protection in different industries (health, food, communications, financial services, energy and so on)? What role should regulators play in providing advice on policy questions?
Summit Process
We propose that summit delegates participate in one of the above streams over several sessions. The first of three sessions will involve structured input from experts, the second an open, participative facilitated discussion among delegates together with the experts, and the third a bringing together and testing of the emerging ideas leading to a broad indication of future directions.
Summit Outcomes
A summit of this kind is most useful in exploring the issues and sharing perspectives on the concerns of different people and organisations. It cannot bind any of the organisations attending to a possible policy position or issue a definitive statement on the issues. (Indeed, it is understood, that current protocols may preclude officers from some public sector agencies from making comments or expressing views on issues without the express approval of their government). What it can do is identify and shape our approach to particular challenges. Ideally it will be able to identify potential principles or favoured approaches to particular questions, at the very least it can identify areas that are worthy of future inquiry or research.
Key Dates
Registration Opens - 15th December 2009
Early Bird Deadline - 29th January 2010
Twitter Updates
twitter.com/checkoutchoice/status/10347685955 Check Out CHOICE launched at #ncc2010
Posted at 6:03PM Mar 16th
#ncc2010 wraps up with Lisa Gray at NAB and close by Nick Stace CHOICE CEO
Posted at 6:02PM Mar 16th
Contact Details
National Consumer Congress 2010
Congress Managers
Managed by arinex pty limited
GPO Box 128,
Sydney NSW 2001, Australia
Phone: +61 2 9265 0700
Fax: +61 2 9267 5443
Email ncc2010@arinex.com.au
Expression of Interest
If you are interested in attending the 2010 National Consumer Congress and would like further information, please complete the form below:
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