Choice (Australian consumer organisation)


Most commonly known as CHOICE, the Australian Consumers' Association is an Australian not for profit consumer advocacy organisation. It is an independent membership based organisation founded in 1959 that researches and campaigns on behalf of Australian consumers. It is similar to the Consumers Union in the United States and Which? in the United Kingdom, who are considered sister organisations. It is the largest consumer organisation in Australia.

Operations

CHOICE's job is to stand up against companies doing the wrong thing. The aim of the organisation is to provide up-to-date information across a wide range of consumer issues that allows individuals to make informed consumer decisions. It also lobbies for change on behalf of consumers when required. CHOICE tests and rates a range of products and services, including appliances, baby products, electronics and home entertainment, computers, food and health, and financial products and services. More than 200,000 people subscribe to the CHOICE magazine.
In 2003, revenue for the organisation was over $10m and by 2019 had grown to over $20m. It is a multi-faceted business with a staff of 80, which includes the scientists and technicians who test the products, policy specialists who devise campaigns, lobby politicians and speak on issues, as well as the journalists who write for CHOICE magazine.
CHOICE buys most of the products it tests on the open market and does not accept advertising. Its income is derived from subscriptions and from the sale of its publications and products. It does not receive ongoing funding from commercial, government or other organisations.

Campaigns and policy

CHOICE also campaigns on behalf of consumers and is a representative on many national and state-based government committees, councils and independent bodies related to consumer rights and issues including food regulation and labelling, health and financial services, telecommunications and digital technology, standards codes, ecologically sustainable development and the environment.
The organisation also holds the annual "Shonky Awards" that highlight dubious or dishonest behaviour. They name and shame that year's most suspect products and companies.
Every year CHOICE and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission host the Ruby Hutchison Memorial Lecture presenting consumer and rights topics.

History

Following World War II, the economy and population of Australia was booming, but it was becoming clear that consumers did not have much guidance or protection.
Ruby Hutchison, MLC, the first woman to be elected to Western Australian upper house, had been receiving complaints from her constituents about the quality and value for money of goods. She knew of overseas consumer organisations in the US and UK so she found out how they worked with a view to creating something similar in Australia.
By the late 1950s there was an increase in market competition, a fall in product standards and what was seen as industry-wide manipulation by marketers. It was in this context that in 1959 Hutchison travelled to Sydney to discuss her idea with a group of like-minded people, including Roland Thorp, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Sydney. Discussions culminated at public meeting on 17 September 1959 at the Sydney Town Hall with the establishment of the Australasian Consumers' Association, which was renamed the Australian Consumers' Association in 1963. The primary aim was to produce a magazine that would inform consumers about their rights and about products, their value and safety.
The first magazine was launched in April 1960 and distributed to 500 subscribers. Membership grew quickly and in 1961 the organisation was represented at an international Conference of Consumers’ Associations in The Hague, where it became a founding member of the International Organisation of Consumers Unions, along with consumer organisations in the US, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.
At first, the Australian Consumers' Association reprinted material from its UK and US counterparts. In 1962 it participated in the first international IOCU test. It also conducted tests in university labs outside work hours and established a scientific testing panel. The experts on the panel were responsible for one test each per year, which they'd oversee on behalf of the ACA and the organisation established a reputation for thoroughly verifying its test data.
In 1983, CHOICE moved from Chippendale to Marrickville, New South Wales, where its head office and laboratories are still located.

List of chairpeople

CHOICE is a publication of the Australian consumer organisation of that name, a non-profit organisation founded in 1959 to research and advocate on behalf of Australian consumers.

History and profile

CHOICE was established in 1960 by Ruby Hutchison and Roland Thorp. The magazine tests and compares different consumer products and services and reports their findings. It is published eleven times per year. The headquarters is in Marrickville, New South Wales.

Other publications

The organisation publishes several products including:
CHOICE also holds the annual "Shonky Awards" that highlight dubious or dishonest behaviour from companies. The awards help consumers to identify the worst of the worst, and name and shame that year's shonkiest products and companies. "Shonky" is Australian slang meaning "unreliable, unsound, dishonest, poor or of dubious quality; shoddy".

Notable past Shonky Award winners:

Two of the 2017 Shonky Award finalists were referred onto the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for alleged breaches of Australian Consumer Law. Finalist Coles Complete Cuisine cat food was referred on for misleading labelling and contradictory claims in the small print. Also, finalist Nature’s Way Kids Smart Vita Gummies was referred on for potentially misleading consumers about the supplement’s health benefits for children and failing to list the amount of sugar contained in each serving.

Controversy

In 2018 the company Australian Hearing was prosecuted and fined for multiple breaches of competition and consumer laws. At the time of the breaches in 2017, the company was led by Bill Davidson who at the time was also the Deputy Chairman of CHOICE. CHOICE issued a statement rebuking Australian Hearing’s actions after Davidson had left Australian Hearing in early 2018.