Chapter 1. above explains that the Productivity Commission, ABS and ASIC measure:
* Australians possess as low as Level 1 and as high as Level 5 Financial Literacy Skills.
*
"For nearly half of the population were assessed at either levels 1 (the lowest level) or 2, both of which are below the minimum level deemed necessary to participate in a knowledge-based economy (level 3)."Based on stats in Reserve Bank reports and information from some of the 44 charities/community organisations that provide Financial Counselling (Chapter 7 above), over half a million Australian Credit Cardholders are suffering Extreme Financial And Emotional Distress due to Credit Cards Debt sometimes exceeding $150,000 (across a dozen or so Credit Cards) that also may affect their family and close friends, causing diminished productivity and creating a further burden on social welfare budgets, as appraised by the Productivity Commission and Dept. of Social Services.
A costly flaw in the judgment by Australia's Three Regulators for Financial Services and Senate Committees is the assumption/belief that all "... individuals are expected to assume personal responsibility for the financial decisions they make,....."
; namely that all individuals possess the capacity to "assume personal responsibility for the financial decisions they make."
Below is extract from Chapter 5 Helping Australians avoid the credit card debt trap - 16 Dec 2015 which flies in the face of Productivity Commission and ABS measurements that
"nearly half of the population ..... are below the minimum level deemed necessary to participate in a knowledge-based economy (level 3) which patently includes possessing the Financial Literacy Skills to take responsibility for using Credit Cards:
"Though individuals are expected to assume personal responsibility for the financial decisions they make, evidence received in this inquiry indicates that the credit card market is structured in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for individuals to make informed decisions about credit card debt."
The above extract says that "...individuals are expected to assume personal responsibility for the financial decisions they make, ...". Then it says "the credit card market is structured in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for individuals to make informed decisions about credit card debt." These two parts of the above extracted single sentence are incongruous, contradictory and paradoxical. How can all individuals ".... assume personal responsibility ...." and then "... the credit card market is structured in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for individuals to make informed decisions......"when the range of those skills are separated into five 'skills' quintiles?
Individuals identified by the Productivity Commission and the ABS as possessing only Level 1 and Level 2 Financial Literacy Skills are unskilled ...to make informed decisions about credit card debt that is structured in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for individuals to make informed decisions."
The Productivity Commission, ABS and 500 (approx.) Financial Counsellors across 44 Australian charities (funded $43m annually by Australian Govt's to assist some Credit Cardholders deal with financial distress), hold empirical evidence that all individuals can not "....assume personal responsibility for the financial decisions they make...." - Chapter 7 above. This is why governments established Three Regulators for Financial Services to 'inter alia' safeguard individuals on the Retail Supply Side of the Credit Card Products from unscrupulous or potentially dangerous product advertising and delivery that has been developed/agreed on the Wholesale Supply Side comprising the Four-Party Schemes and Three-Party Schemes.
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Refer:
Summary Page re Written Questions and the Grounds/Reasons
Grounds/Reasons (one document with 21 Chapters)
Grounds/Reasons (21 separate Chapters)
Written Questions (one document with Written Questions)
Written Questions (Individual Written Questions)