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FCDRS Council Independence is a critical part of any dispute resolution process. To ensure the independence of the Scheme, the Rules of the FCDRS Inc require that the governing body, the Council, has equal numbers of industry and consumer representatives, and an independent Chair. The Chair must be a person who:
Industry representatives are chosen by the Scheme's participants which are credit unions, building societies, non-approved deposit taking institutions and other financial service providers. Click here for details of participants. To ensure that the best possible consumer representatives are appointed, the FCDRS Council follows the guidelines recommended by the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council in its publication entitled Principles for the Appointment of Consumer Representatives: A Process for Governments and Industry. This document can be obtained from the Commonwealth Treasury's website at http://www.treasury.gov.au/ The current Council of five members is as follows: Independent Chair: Mr Robert Mills Industry representatives: Mr
Philip Elliott Consumer representatives: Loretta
Kreet Mr Robert Mills, Independent
Chairman Robert is an accredited Mediator with the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators and the Qld Department of Justice & Attorney-General, a Tribunal Mediator for the Queensland Building Tribunal, a Member of the Franchising Code of Conduct Panel of Franchise Dispute Mediators and a panel mediator for the Queensland Government Energy Consumer Protection Office. He holds a Masters Degree in Dispute Resolution from the University of Technology Sydney, and is involved in training mediators for the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators, Queensland Chapter and the Qld Department of Justice & Attorney-General. He is a Member of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Assn of Qld Inc and an Associate Member of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators. Prior to this he had a highly successful political career in Local Government for over a decade, as part of the Administration and in Opposition contesting the Lord Mayoralty of Brisbane City in the March 1997 elections. He has performed a wide range of roles and developed a wealth of experience in leadership and decision-making in highly critical and strategically important areas of governance and the community.
Philip has almost 30 years experience in the credit union industry, and is well credentialled for his current position as Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), which together with the two Special Service Providers (SSPs) CSL and CTL, form CreditLink. Prior to his involvement with credit unions he was an assessor with the Taxation Department and a branch manager with a finance company. His career in the credit union industry commenced in January 1973 with the Victorian State Association (VCCA Ltd), primarily as Liaison Manager (legislative affairs) and in 1982 he joined the Victorian Credit Union Reserve Board, as its first Chief Executive Officer. In 1984 he was appointed General Manager of Pace Credit Union, which later merged with PICCOL Credit Union, where he remained as Assistant General Manager until he moved to Brisbane in 1993. He was instrumental in the formation of CreditLink in 1992 and the subsequent development of the two SSPs as General Manager. While the majority of his credit union career has been involved with legislation and government liaison, he has also undertaken periods of credit union management and supervision.
Phil Baker has extensive experience in the financial services industry having commenced work as Assistant Accountant with Greater Building Society in 1978. After various roles at the Greater in finance, credit control and retail management, he was appointed Company Secretary in 1991. His role as Company Secretary encompasses responsibility for advising the Greater's board and management on governance practice and compliance with all applicable legislative, prudential and code of conduct requirements. He also has responsibility for managerial oversight of the Greater's Legal & Compliance, Human Resources and Training Departments. Mr. Baker has been a member of Greater's Senior Executive Committee since 1991 and is also a member of the Greater's Internal Dispute Resolution Committee.
Loretta Kreet holds degrees in Law and Economics from the University of Sydney. She has spent the last 10 years working exclusively in the area of consumer credit within the community sector and Legal Aid Queensland. She spearheaded the campaign for the paydaylending amendment in Queensland after alerting colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria to the practice and garnering their support. She was the inaugural recipient of the Civil Justice Award in 2001 from the Qld branch of the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association for her work around loansharking and paydaylending. She
is the trustee of the National Consumer Trust, a current council member
of the Consumers Telecommunications Network, a board member of Parent
to Parent Inc. (a statewide organisation providing support to parents
of children with disabilities), and a member of Brisbane Consumers Association. Paul
O'Shea Paul O'Shea is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia. He has practised principally as a commercial litigation solicitor both for city-based law firms and as the foundation civil litigation solicitor at Financial Counselling Services (Qld) Inc., a community legal service. He holds Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Bachelor of Laws and Master of Science degrees. His major area of expertise is Consumer Law, particularly, Consumer Credit Law and he has published extensively in this field. He is the author of the chapter on "Privacy of Debtors" for Butterworths Consumer Credit Law and the chapter on "Consumer Rights" in the Lawyers Practice Manual published by the Law Book Company and the section on "Consumer Credit Law" in the Queensland Law Handbook. He has published in the Queensland Annual Law Review, the Queensland Law Society Journal, Proctor and the Consumer Rights Journal. His
PhD research is on the role of disclosure in unjust contracts. He is
a member of the Queensland Law Society Banking and Finance Committee,
the Technical Reference Group for the National Review of the Consumer
Credit Code, a state government working party on the regulation of finance
brokers and has given numerous conference papers on consumer credit
in Queensland and interstate. He is an Alternate Member of the General
Insurance Claims Review Panel of Insurance Enquiries and Complaints
Ltd. Paul is a former Vice-President of the Queensland Council for Civil
Liberties and he has published and presented in the areas of international
human rights law, electoral systems, censorship and the rights of children.
His most recent publication is entitled "Keeping them down on the
Farm: Rural Finance and Higher Purchase" in The Queensland Lawyer.
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