About NICS

The National Indigenous Consumer Strategy is a strategy developed by consumer agency representatives from all Australian States and Territories, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and an independent member, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN).

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the current NICS Chair and is assisted by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading as sub-Chair.

The Strategy will focus our efforts in working together to improve outcomes for Indigenous consumers.

Commonwealth, State and Territory consumer agencies are committed to the following strategic directions:

• The promotion of basic consumer rights recognised by the United Nations for Indigenous people in Australia.
• To build knowledge, confidence and awareness for Indigenous people to action their consumer rights.
• To improve access to the services of consumer law regulators.
• Improving market outcomes for Indigenous consumers.

We have developed an Action Plan, available for download here, and are committed to working co-operatively on the issues and actions identified in the plan. We are also committed to regularly reviewing our achievements against the actions and will further develop the plan in light of these achievements.

We recognise that there are many other stakeholders who make significant contributions to improving Australia’s performance regarding Indigenous consumer affairs. We invite stakeholders to adopt and implement the Action Plan.