MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Welcome back. Well, the Department of Finance has announced over $14 million worth of funding in an effort to make Australia the hardest target for scammers. The new proposals come as the government aims to crack down on fraud, ensuring victims are able to seek compensation through a new, streamlined service. For more Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones joins us now. Great to have you with us. So, how will this new funding benefit victims straight off?
STEPHEN JONES:
The situation at the moment is the law is really grey on what the obligations on banks, on telecommunications companies and social media platforms are to keep their customers safe. I'm introducing new laws into parliament in the next few weeks which will raise the bar significant new protections for consumers, but also ensuring they have a single front door to go through when something goes wrong and they're unable to resolve their complaint. That front door will be the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Significant uplift in funding, $14.7 million so they can deal with a caseload of complaints that they're going to have to deal with. So, if I could put it simply, new obligations, new – new avenues for redress, Australian consumers better off.
SHIRVINGTON:
The main thing, I think, for most people when they get targeted and scammed is the speed of some sort of resolution. Is it going to speed that up?
JONES:
Absolutely. There'll be stronger obligations on banks, dispute resolution processes and an independent tribunal if things can't be resolved. And I'll ensure that there's a fast track process in there as well, to ensure that people can raise their complaints. A lot of it will be, I want my money back, but a lot of it will also be, can you pull down that fake webpage?
SHIRVINGTON:
Yes.
JONES:
That is impersonating me. That is impersonating a bank or a telecommunications company. Pull down that material because people are being lured into losing money through that. So, there's a range of complaints, new avenues to be able to deal with that.
SHIRVINGTON:
That's fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. The other thing that piques my interest too is the SMS sender ID registry that you're implementing, which will mean it won't pop up on those SMS threads from the banks as well. Appreciate your time this morning.
JONES:
Good to be with you.